AkuSaiRokuShi
by Raberba girl
Summary: After Xehanort's final defeat, Lea, Isa, Roxas, & Xion start a new life together. Platonic/family AkuSaiRokuShi; one-shot series. I'll also include some random stories from different universes for AkuSaiRokuShi and variations, possibly with an occasional side of Jasmine. No slash.
1. BbF&ML: Vacation Notice

Bound by Fire & Moon Light

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic series by Raberba girl

Summary: Axel has three best friends in the universe, and the four of them together are made of love and adorableness. AkuSaiRokuShi and variations, possibly with an occasional side of Jasmine; no slash.

A/N: I put a short introduction to this in my Saix/Roxas Day fic (which is, according to FFN, the second chapter of "alternate"). Basically, this series with the horrible stupid OCD title is where I'm going to put all my non-_Stepsiblings_ AkuSaiRokuShi and _Bound by Moonlight_ stories. And AkuRoku and AkuShi and SaiRoku and SaiShi and trios (all platonic, for you new readers) and most variations involving Jasmine, IDK I'm just throwing random OT4/5 stuff in here. XD AkuSai, SaiJaz, and RokuShi already have their own series.

If none of that made sense to you, just don't worry about it... These stories should hopefully all stand alone (and they will definitely take place in various universes and most will probably be AU), but I'm sure they'll make more sense if you've read lots of my other Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. *sweatdrop*

**Vacation Notice (rough draft)  
**

A/N: Lol, this is my post-KH3 headcanon for them. XD There will be more where this came from, this is just an introduction.

o.o.o

There had been a big argument about Radiant Garden vs. Twilight Town, before Lea finally threatened to flounce off to Wonderland and sulk so that _no one_ got what they wanted. Even then, though, it just turned from yelling and borderline boss battles to whining.

"But Axeeellll, we used to go to Twilight Town every _day_!" Xion insisted.

"I don't wanna leave," Roxas pouted, artfully enough that, even as a teenager, he still seemed cute rather than like an oversized toddler.

"They're doing it _again_," Isa stormed. "_Don't_ look in their eyes, that's exactly what they want."

"I'm not looking," Lea grumbled, holding the strategy guide so close to his face that he actually couldn't read it anymore.

"Radiant Garden's all, like, rickety."

"That ninja girl keeps picking on me."

"It's our home," Isa growled. "Don't you want to see your family again, Lea?"

"I haven't seen them in ages..."

"You're frightened."

"What?! No I'm not! Nobodies don't have hearts, we can't-"

There was a long pause. Then the kids started giggling, and Isa folded his arms and looked away, not smiling but not frowning, either.

"Being human is hard to get used to," Lea amended ruefully. "Okay, fine; I'm scared that Mom won't recognize me or that she'll...or that she'll hate me..." As if she would be able to look in his face and somehow see evidence there of all the horrible things he'd done while her heart had been wandering in darkness. "But who cares! Why do _you_ want to go back to the Garden so bad? The University's a wreck."

Isa gestured violently as he spoke. "I lost _everything_ at age 15, everything except my best friend. We watched our families be consumed by darkness, we literally watched our world crumble, we were nearly lost to darkness ourselves, I've spent the last _ten years_ trying to get my life back. I want to see my home restored and I want to see my mother again and I WANT TO GRADUATE COLLEGE, LEA, BECAUSE NORMAL PEOPLE GET TO GROW UP AND GO TO SCHOOL AND GET THEIR DIPLOMAS AND _WE ARE NORMAL NOW_."

Lea glanced at the younger two and told them conversationally as he pointed at the ex-berserker, "For the record, kiddos, this is not normal. Just so you know."

"Okay," they chorused readily.

Isa made a sound of disgust. "Never mind. I'll go without you."

Lea grinned. "No, you won't."

Isa didn't say anything.

Lea and Roxas and Xion waited.

Isa still didn't say anything.

They waited some more. Lea started feeling sorry for him, and the Keybearers began to get bored.

"...I hate you."

"Well, I don't hate you, Isa." Lea held up a hand to get the kids' attention again. "Hey. Rox, Xi. Four years in Radiant Garden, okay? Then we'll go to Twilight Town."

"Four _years_-?!"

"Three," Isa said in a low voice.

Everyone looked at him again.

Isa said to Roxas and Xion, "It's still more than double your lifetimes, I know. But truly, compared to the rest of your lives, it's not very long at all. Please trust me."

They gazed at him, Roxas with a frown, both with eyes full of memories and words unspoken.

"Trust me, then," said Lea. "Radiant Garden's not so bad. And three years is better than four. Isa's giving up something to make you happy, see?"

Isa glared, but didn't say anything.

"We'll really get to go to Twilight Town, then?" Roxas hedged.

"Yeah. Promise."

Now Lea was the one they were looking at, almost reproachfully. He couldn't stand it. "Okay, I _know_ I've lied to you before, and sometimes I can't keep my promises very well, and-"

"Listen to me." That was Isa. "Like it or not, the four of us are together now. I highly doubt that either of you could leave any more than...any more than I can."

"Aw, I feel so loved," Lea muttered under his breath with a grin, and was ignored.

"That means that we are family. I know you don't have any experience of what family is, but it's when-"

"It's like when we were fighting together," Xion said quietly. "Sora and Aqua and Kairi and Ven and Riku and Namine and everyone...all of us...when we all helped each other and protected each other..."

Roxas gave a heavy sigh. "So we're stuck with you, great. Fine. _Promise_ we'll go to Twilight Town again, both of you. If you lie this time, I'll beat you _both_ up, AGAIN."

Lea grinned and stretched out his hand. The kids stared at it curiously; then, after a moment's hesitation, Isa laid his own hand on top of it. Xion and then Roxas dubiously followed suit, until the four of them were joined by those hands, a gesture of alliance and trust and camaraderie. Xion decided that she liked being in a family.

"First the Garden," Lea affirmed, "then Twilight Town. Heh, not like there's much to do there - you don't need some fancy-schmancy degree for that sleepy little place, right, Isa?"

"I simply refuse to be a dropout like they always said _you_ would be," Isa grumbled.

It was painful, picking his way through the crumbled, half-rebuilt neighborhood, drawing closer and closer to his old house with his heart sitting heavy in his chest. "Isa...I don't think this is such a good id-"

"Stop whining."

"I'm not whining!"

He could see it now. Someone had re-painted the shutters the same color as his hair, as if they were calling out to him. "Hey, you guys go catch up with everyone, I'm gonna head around to the shops and see if-"

Isa wordlessly and firmly linked an arm through his, Roxas did the same on the other side, and Xion patted him soothingly. "It's okay, Axel."

"Hey! Let go, what, you think I'm gonna run away or something?!" They didn't even bother responding.

Joyous reunion, blah blah blah; apparently his mother wasn't a mind-reader, and it didn't hurt as much as he'd been afraid it would, seeing Zell and the girls grown up instead of still being the little kids he remembered, those lost children he still thought of vaguely at the back of his mind whenever he looked into Roxas's and Xion's eyes. The Keybearers seemed to enjoy the sight of their towering mentor being smothered and babied by his own mom, and they definitely relished the look of horror on Isa's face when his mother, rushing over from her house down the street, called him "Saa-chan" as she flung her arms around him.

"I like that name better than 'Saix,'" Xion decided. "And I'll remember it better than 'Isa.'"

"Yeah. We'll call him that from now on."

"Don't you _dare_," Isa snarled over his mother's shoulder.

"Saa-chaaaan, what happened to your beautiful face?" she cried in distress, finally pulling back and stroking the scars as he shied away uncomfortably.

"Such things happen in battle. Mother, _please_."

"And who are these cuties, Lea sweetheart?" his mom asked with great interest as she finally acknowledged the fact that her long-lost son wasn't the only person inhabiting the universe at the moment.

"Um, these are my..." 'Best friends' didn't quite convey the fact that they didn't have anywhere to live except with him, and 'kids' was probably not the best choice. "...my family."

"Oh?"

As the weeks passed, it became apparent that the house was too small to comfortably accommodate all of them: parents, five teenagers, and grown son who felt weird heading out every day to wait tables and earn munny rather than slay monsters and gain experience points. Instead of returning to the comfort of Twilight Town, to the huge shadowed castle and co-workers who mostly ignored him as he fended for himself, it was the tiny, crowded, messy warm house, people everywhere, constant chatter and yelling, constant noise and confusion, great food and _so many questions_ and stories and laughter. It was awesome.

But it was going to take a while to get used to.

"Isa?"

Just the two of them for once, waiting out in the courtyard until the kids got out of school, Isa drowning in textbooks as always, Lea still in his work uniform as he absently licked at an ice cream bar.

"Hm?"

"It feels weird being treated like a kid again..."

"I know what you mean."

The house they found was tiny, but it sat perfectly between the university and the high school, and the rent was tolerable. Xion fell in love with the flowers growing in the window box out front, and doted on them like they were her babies. Roxas liked having easy access to the skater's park. Isa didn't hate it particularly more than he hated everything else these days. Lea was just glad to have a haven where he felt like a man again instead of an overgrown kid who'd never settle in.

o.o.o

"Ugh." His Organization days were over, and he was _still_ waking up at five in the morning. Isa dragged himself out of bed, shuffled around getting ready for school, and found Lea sitting in the dark living room, staring blankly at a black-and-white movie on television as he cradled a mug of coffee in his hands. "Early shift again?"

"Yeah..."

"I'll make breakfast."

"Thanks."

Xion soon came in, perhaps drawn by the smell of cooking food, looking sleepy but eager to see what the new day would bring. Isa often envied her youthful enthusiasm. "Can I help, Saa-chan?"

He had long since given up protesting the humiliating nickname, at least when they were in private. "Make a fresh pitcher of juice, please."

"Okay."

"Did you finish your homework last night?"

"Almost..."

"What didn't you understand?"

"The 'motif' thing."

"Bring it here, I'll explain it to you."

"Okay. Thanks, Saa-ch- Isa."

"Hmph."

College was dang expensive, it sucked up munny like Luxord's Grim Reaper. It was clear that they were going to exhaust their Organization earnings within a few semesters if they didn't take steps now, and both of them refused to touch Roxas's and Xion's munny, so Lea took on a second job. If Isa could kill himself with 18-hour semesters with nothing more than wordless scowls, then Lea could handle two jobs without complaining, too. And there was always the kids, their bright eyes and innocent curiosity and carefree laughter, to remind them why they'd longed so much and worked so hard to get this human life back again.

o.o.o.o.o

Something was wrong.

Isa finally managed to lift his head off the desk, wincing at the crick in neck, and realized what both sources of wrongness were at the same time. One, his desktop was clear - there was no sign of the books, papers, and computer he'd fallen asleep in the middle of working with. Two, daylight was starting to creep through the window. His alarm clock hadn't gone off for some reason.

He was up and bursting into the living room in a flash - where he came up short. Lea was not in uniform - he and the younger ones were bustling happily about, Lea tossing things toward Roxas for him to pack into a couple of beach bags, Xion running up to announce triumphantly that she'd found the sunblock.

"What are you doing?" Isa said sharply.

"Look, Isa." Roxas pointed at the sliding door, onto which was taped a paper reading 'VACATION.' "I got to make the Vacation Day this time."

"Lea, you've got work today," Isa snapped.

"Traded my shift," Lea said airily. "Do me a favor and grab a few towels, Isa."

"I'm late for _school_."

"Saa-chan," Xion said patiently, as if to a small child, "Vacation Day means that you don't work. You go out and have fun. We're all going to the beach together."

"Lea!"

"Chill, you can miss a day. It won't kill you."

"_Lea_! It's an _eight-hour class_! Missing one day is like missing an entire week of school!"

"You can copy someone else's notes like I did that time I was sick," Roxas said. "Here." He reached a blueberry muffin up to Isa's mouth. "Me and Xion made them, they're good."

"_Get_ that away from me." Isa whirled in a panic and lunged for his desk again before remembering that everything was gone. "Where are my books?!"

"Don't worry about 'em."

"You don't need books on a Vacation Day, Saa-chan."

"Duh."

"They're in the closet, aren't they." Isa went and yanked at the doorknob, which was locked. "Where's the key!"

"Now, where did I put that thing again?" Lea wondered playfully.

"Xion, open it _now_."

"Ummm...my Keyblade broke," she said, blinking innocent blue eyes.

"Roxas!"

Roxas summoned his Keyblade, whirled it in the fancy gestures he had learned from Sora, and ended with the weapon pointed at the closet door. Nothing happened. "Huh. That's weird." He dismissed it and went back to stuffing sandwiches into a plastic container, obviously hiding a grin as he did so.

"You three are lucky I don't assign you missions anymore," Isa snarled, raising a hand to retrieve the books himself. It was just once, and a small one, for such short distance-

Suddenly Lea was there, gripping his arm to stop him and chirping in a fakely bright voice, "_Splendid_ idea, Saa-chan! Let's open a dark corridor and toss out a welcome mat for Xehanort's Remnant to come waltzing back into your heart so that you turn back into a Vulcan-eared, butterscotch/topaz-eyed jerk and we have to drag Sora out of retirement _again_ to save you and turn you back into the green-eyed jerk we all know and sometimes wonder why we love." His voice and expression abruptly went cold. "Just hope that Sora's willing to dive back to your pillar, because I won't be doing it this time."

There was a long silence. Finally broken when the worried-looking Xion whispered to Roxas, "I'd rather give Saa-chan the closet key than him turn back into Saix."

"But he'll miss Beach Day," Roxas whispered back.

"He'll miss Beach Day if he's Saix, too."

"Oh." They both looked at him unhappily.

Isa slowly lowered his arm, and Lea finally let go of him. "...I need to study."

"You're doing this for us," Lea said softly. "Killing yourself with these crazy semesters so you can get through sooner and spare us an extra year of this. We want to do something for you, too, Isa."

Xion came over and took their hands. "You said we're a family now, right? Families are supposed to go on vacations together and do fun things together and be together. Your mom said so. We're not Numbers anymore who have to work all the time."

Roxas shoved his way into the circle. "Your books are boring, anyway, and you hate them. You'll have more fun at the beach."

"...This is true," Isa acknowledged. He gave a long sigh. "Fine. I'll fail the class and waste thousands of munny just to humor this whim of yours. You had better make this worth it."

Lea chuckled. "So dramatic."

"So we're going to the beach?" Xion asked, her face lighting up.

"Yes."

"You'll like it," Roxas promised. "We'll teach you how to build a sandcastle."

He was a little surprised when Isa grinned back at him, just a little. "Is that so."

This time, Lea laughed outright. "Rox, remember how I said that I knew someone whose sandcastles could pose for magazine covers?"

"Yeah?"

Lea pointed at Isa.

"That was Isa?!"

Isa turned away without answering, though he looked a little smug. "If we're going to be spending the day outdoors in this weather," he said in a brisk tone, "we're going to need _much_ more sunblock, that bottle is half-empty. Lea, make sure we don't forget the parking pass; Roxas, go fill several bottles with water, we need to stay hydrated; and Xion, come with me, I need your help fetching the..."

"Man," Lea commented as he watched them walk off. "Still bossy as ever."

"At least he can't sic us on Leechgraves and stuff anymore when he's mad."

"Heh, true."

They high-fived and then went back to packing.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: **The butterscotch/topaz stuff is from Cleolinda Jones. ^^**


	2. Everyone Who's Human

Everyone Who's Human

(rough draft)

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

_For Thanksgiving Day 2012, November 22nd_

Summary: Xion reminds Saïx that even in miserable circumstances, there's always something to be thankful for. AU

A/N: Takes place in the same universe as my Saïx/Xion Day fic which I never finished/published. -.- I hope this isn't too confusing... **(Ftr, this takes place after an alien invasion apocalypse.)**

o.o.o

He was sweating and tired and hungry and very much not in the mood to handle her enthusiasm.

"Saïx, aren't you excited?!"

"No. Move out of the way, I want to catch a shower before the rations run out."

"Saiiiix," Xion whined, trotting along after him, "we haven't had a holiday in _ages_. This'll be good for us."

"What will be good for us is if I am allowed to bathe and then get some sleep so that I'm as well rested as possible tomorrow morning when it's time to get back to work and continue to ensure the survival of everyone inhabiting this outpost."

She blew out an exasperated breath. "It's not good for people to work every single day without any breaks at all."

"Tell that to the creatures trying to kill us."

She was quiet for too long, and he finally stopped and turned to face her, repressing a sigh. "Forgive me. What I said was insensitive, I shouldn't have mentioned it just to win an argument."

She drew in a long, deliberate breath and released it slowly. "It's Thanksgiving, Saïx."

He raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"So we have things that we're thankful for. We can't be rushing rushing rushing and fighting fighting fighting all the time. Sometimes we have to stop and remember why life is still worth living."

"Xion." He made a wide gesture with his arm. "A full third of mankind has been wiped out, a quarter of those remaining are in enemy hands, and the rest of us are fighting a war we have no hope of winning. _I_ don't see much to be thankful for in that, do you?"

"We're alive," she said quietly. "We have each other. We've had electricity for the last two weeks straight and enough weapons to arm everyone over age fourteen and enough food to get us through the winter if we're careful, and enough water for _you_ to take a shower once you brush me off yet again because you've decided I'm just an annoying brat who's not worth talking to."

He saw the tears standing in her eyes, and remembered that she was, after all, still just a child...at least by the standards of the world they had lost. He remembered that horrible day, what she had suffered then, what she still must suffering now even after all this time. Though his own child was gone, possibly forever, he remembered what it was like to have a young person look up to him and depend on him.

Saïx reached out and pulled Xion into his arms, letting her cry. "You're right," he finally said softly, when she could hear him. "There are many things to be thankful for. This holiday is a good idea." He frowned. "As long as it's just the one day."

She raised her head to give him a watery grin. "Of course. Can't let you guys slack off, now, right?"

o.o.o.o.o

As celebratory feasts go, the trappings were pitiful...yet the meaning was felt heavily in every gesture, behind every word. People's spirits were brighter than Saïx had ever seen them as they passed around precious scraps of meat and chunks of warm bread, some of it actually made fresh. Someone had even produced a few cans of fruit, past its expiration date but still edible and quite delicious to their sweet-starved palates.

"I propose a toast," the Captain called out after he had gotten everyone to quiet down, "and a prayer." He had their attention. "First of all, to us, the people of Earth - may we live long and prosper!"

There was a ripple of laughter and a clinking of cups and glasses.

"Why is that funny?" Xion whispered to Saïx.

"I have no idea."

"And secondly-"

There was a commotion by the eighth tunnel entry. Everyone seemed more curious and excited than alarmed, so Saïx paid it little attention and scooped some more food onto his plate as he waited for order to be restored.

"Folks," the Captain finally resumed in an eager tone, "looks like our visitors were able to make it in time after all! Mr. Flynn Rider and his team from Outpost 92, let's give them all a welcoming-"

"Xion," Saïx said sharply, "where are you-?"

She had dashed off, was shoving her way through the crowd with uncharacteristic aggression, and now Saïx noticed that one of the newcomers was making his way toward her even more forcefully. People were quickly starting to move out of their way, exclaiming in confusion or anticipation, and then the two of them met.

"Dad," Xion sobbed as they flung their arms around each other, "Dad, Daddy, you're okay, I'm so, I..."

He was murmuring back to her in a low voice, the two of them embracing so tightly that they nearly stumbled more than once, until Saïx was able to take hold of the man's arm and steer them both into a nearby chair. He was not the only one assisting them. He looked up and was startled to meet a pair of aquamarine eyes.

"Hi, Dad," Riku said, as casually as if he was strolling in from what had once been a normal day at school.

"Where have you _been_?" Saïx demanded.

His son laughed. "We've been worried about you, too."

"Where's your mother?"

"On the ship parked over Japan."

"On a _ship_?"

"Undercover mission," Riku clarified quickly. "She's fine, at least for now. Look, she sent this for you."

Saïx ripped it out of his hand almost before he'd even finished pulling it out of his pocket and activated the holo right where he stood.

_"Hello, love."_ Aqua. As beautiful and self-confident as ever, despite the drone collar around her neck and the half-healed injury on one arm. _"I'm hoping Riku gets this to you in time. Everything's been going as planned, so you don't have to worry about me yet. We heard reports of someone matching your description in one of the North American outposts, so I'm going to hope for the best and assume you're still alive. I miss you, sweetheart, and I love you. Riku's done fantastic work, you'll be proud of him. I won't be able to record another message for at least another three months, so this is all my holiday love rolled into one. I have a little gift for you, hopefully Riku still has it."_

"I do," Riku murmured with a grin. "I'll hand it over in a minute."

_"If all continues to go well, we should be out of here by midsummer, though I won't record the details here in case this falls into the wrong hands. Just know that there's no reason to give up yet, and that there's still a chance we'll be able to meet again."_

"More than a chance," Riku said softly. "One day we're going to be a family again, Dad. I promise."

"Sssh," said Saïx.

_"...so I have to go now. I think about you all the time. Don't forget me."_

"As if I could," Saïx murmured. Then he just had to stand there for a while until he could speak without weeping.

He realized that Xion was holding his hand. "Saïx?"

"...Xion."

"I wanted you...to meet my dad..."

He raised his head met the eyes of the newcomer who, along with Xion, had caused such a fuss earlier.

"So you're the one I have to thank for my princess making it through the invasion," said Xion's father.

"She happened to be at the right place at the right-" Her friend had not been. "I was mostly running on impulse."

Riku gave him a good-natured shove. "Just to warn you, my dad's a grump. I'm Riku."

"Axel. This is Xion, who kinda replaced you for a while, from the sound of it."

Riku and Xion both laughed, and Saïx was a little surprised when she picked up his own arm and wrapped it around herself. "Saïx was my dad when my real dad couldn't be here for me," she said affectionately. "But I'm sure he'd way rather have you around than me, Riku."

"That's not-" Well, it was true, but that didn't mean Saïx hated or resented her, either.

Riku shrugged. "Hey, we can all share, right? End of the world as we know it, can't have too much family."

"All of us are family now," Xion said thoughtfully. "Everyone who's human. We all have to take care of each other and help each other."

"Sounds good to me," said Axel. He put an arm around Saïx's shoulders, enclosing Xion between them, and Riku reached out to join in the embrace. Saïx would have shaken them off if there'd been a point to it, but there wasn't, because everyone else was joining hands, anyway.

"Like I was saying," the Captain continued at the head of the room with a raised voice, laughing as he turned away from his exchange with Rider. "A prayer. To give thanks for everything we still have despite everything we've lost, all the things we're grateful for on this day..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Lol, you'd think it would be Roxas & Jasmine instead of Riku & Aqua, but story flow comes first. ^^;

Man, I'd wanted to do a _Stepsiblings_ fic, since I have a ton of Stepsibs Thanksgiving plunnies (and even more Christmas ones XD), but I was starting to stress out...I knew I wouldn't have enough time to write a proper Stepsibs Thanksgiving fic AND a Larxene Super-Day fic AND the rest of the giftfics/kiriban/etc. AND the truckload of Pairing Day fics coming up in December AND my huge Christmas project I've barely even started AND all the stories on my Massive Update list...yeah, not gonna happen. ^^; I played around with various fail plunnies until one finally survived, which was this one, but - dang it, the universe it's set in hasn't even been published yet! DX


	3. Day 03 - Gaming watching a movie

**A Kingdom Hearts fanwork: 30 Day OTP Challenge by Ericandy, written by Raberba girl**

**Day 03 - Gaming / watching a movie (rough draft)**

Summary: Well, at least Saïx found something, even if it wasn't what he was actually looking for.

o.o.o

He couldn't find it _anywhere_. Wondering if he could have dropped it in the Grey Area, Saïx entered the room close to midnight and then paused, a picture of incredulity. Axel was lounging on a couch with both Keybearers cuddled up to him, fast asleep. He looked pretty heavy-lidded himself. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"MLP marathon," Axel said sleepily. "I got the movie today, and we were gonna watch the whole series in one go. Kids didn't make it, though; we'll have to finish tomorrow."

"What is 'MLP'?"

Axel grinned. "You don't wanna know."

Saïx looked at the colorful, high-voiced cartoon ponies cavorting on the television screen, and silently agreed. "The younger ones should be in bed, also."

"Well, they're already asleep..." Axel lifted the remote and shut off the DVD player, but didn't move after that.

Saïx didn't, either.

"Man...it's been ages since we watched this show," Axel remarked softly.

...Every Thursday night, together, cosplayed as the heroes on weekends, waited in line for hours to get the actors' autographs, Lea playing the video game tie-ins more times than he could remember, Isa's shelf full of collectibles...

Saïx stood watching for about half an hour. Then a second episode came on - apparently the station was playing the entire third season back-to-back - and Saïx sat down so as to be more comfortable.

The next morning, Xaldin came up short upon entering the Grey Area, and stared. He had no idea why Numbers VII, VIII, XIII, and XIV would all be curled up together asleep on the couch with My Little Pony DVD cases scattered around them, and he very much did not want to know. All he cared about was getting his latest mission brief, though he suspected that any other Organization member who came across them like this would have more than missions in mind...

o.o.o

Author's Notes: ...Dang it, OT4, why do you only cooperate in AUs and post-canon? DX DX DX *sulk*

Lol, either they magically get transmissions from other worlds, or maybe Demyx runs a TV station on The World That Never Was. XD

Complete: 4/30


	4. BbF&ML: Day 23 - Arguing

**A Kingdom Hearts fanwork: 30 Day OTP Challenge by Ericandy, written by Raberba girl**

**Day 23 - Arguing (rough draft)**

Summary: Seems like things didn't turn out like they planned.

A/N: This is set in that post-KH3 headcanon of mine.

o.o.o

"Whyyyy do they kill us with homework _this close_ to summer vacation?" Roxas groaned, walking home with Xion and a backpack that felt like it contained a pile of bricks.

"We still have two weeks left..."

"_This_ close! THIS CLOSE to summer vacation! School should be, like, getting easier, right? But noooo, science test, lab write-up, English essay, history essay, history project, makeup work she just _can't_ give me a zero for, math homework every single freaking day, we even have homework for _choir_ on top of practicing for the concert, then there's A WHOLE WEEK OF FINALS after all that..."

"Summer vacation's in two weeks," Xion said soothingly.

"I don't care what Isa says, I'm burning my books as soon as finals are over."

"He'll give you the doomgaze look..."

"I don't caaaaare! Man, if I was Axel - Nobody-Axel, not this Axel - I could just snap my fingers and Poof! No more homework."

"The teachers would just make you do it all over again, even if you don't have the papers..."

"Stop being right."

It occurred to her that he just wanted to vent. "Okay. You want me to buy you some ice cream?"

"Sure."

He was in a better mood by the time they got home, but then there was something else to worry about. Isa was lying on the couch, watching _My Little Pony_.

"...Are you sick?" Roxas said bluntly.

Isa ignored him.

"Can I get you anything, Saa-chan?" Xion asked.

"Give me my life back."

"Uhhh..."

He sighed. "Never mind. Just go about your business."

"Okay," Roxas said, heading for the kitchen.

Xion hesitated, then came around to look at Isa from the front. He was just lying there, his face completely blank like when he'd been a Nobody. She was a little relieved to see a book lying on the floor, but it was closed. Also, the ponies. _Ponies_. "...Saa-chan?"

"Go away."

"I didn't know you like this show."

"Leave me alone." He blinked, and a little bit of life crept back into his eyes. "What show-?" He shot upright. "What _is_ this?!"

"The episode where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash play pranks on everyone."

"Sacred moon-!" Isa fumbled for the remote and stabbed buttons until the TV shut off. He stared at the black screen, breathing hard. "What was...that...?"

"Saa-chan...you were watching it. You _do_ remember watching it, don't you?" She was getting a little scared now.

"I was n-! What time is it-?" He stared at the clock. "It's been twenty-three minutes," he said in a dead voice. "That was on screen for twenty-three minutes and I _didn't even notice_..." He kind of tilted over like a falling tree and just lay there again, this time with his face hidden in the couch pillows.

"...Saa-chan, really, can I help, please?"

"Go do your homework," he mumbled.

"...I need help," she asserted. "I don't get it."

"Yes, you do."

"I _don't_."

"I'm tired."

"Saa-chaaaaan, that's the thing! You're _never_ tired! Even when your eyes are bloodshot and you look like you're gonna keel over from exhaustion, you just drink another Potion and keep going! _What is wrong with you?!_"

Roxas came back into the living room, eating a sandwich. "Is he sick?"

"I don't knoooow! Roxas, come see what's wrong with him!"

Roxas came over and kicked the couch. "Oi, what's wrong with you?"

"Go away."

Kick. Kick. Kick.

Isa suddenly surged up, eyes flashing.

"Whatcha gonna do?" Roxas taunted, giggling a little in anticipation as he backed away, still trying to keep hold of his sandwich. "Gonna go berserker on me? Oooooh, _who's_ still got a Keyblade and _who's_ just a loser with no magic now, huh? Ooooh, whatcha gonna do...?"

Isa didn't take the bait. His expression faded, and he dropped back onto the couch, picking the book off the floor as if to read it. "I don't feel like playing your childish games. Go amuse yourselves elsewhere."

Xion and Roxas looked at each other, then back at their friend. Isa ignored them, eyes fixed intently on the book. Roxas finally shrugged and wandered away. Xion waited until she was sure that Isa was just staring at the book and not actually reading it. "Are you ever gonna turn the page, Isa?"

He did so in response.

She snatched the book out of his hand, and he glared at her. "What did you just read?" she challenged, glancing at the page to make sure.

"...Quasimodo was...showing Esmeralda around the bell tower..."

"NO! You're just guessing!" She flung the book aside and grabbed his shoulders, trying to resist the urge to shake him. "_What is wrong with you_?"

He looked at her, really looked at her, for a long moment. Then, to her surprise, he took her in his arms and just hugged her for a while. "You're really worried, aren't you," he said softly.

"Umm...well, yeah. You're our friend, Saa-chan. You're acting weird, something's wrong."

"Nothing is...wrong, Xion." He sighed deeply and let her lean back. She studied him warily, and he put on a smile that she knew was fake, because it was so obvious he was still sad. "I apologize for worrying you. You said you need help with your homework?"

"I was...lying, I just wanted to spend time with you."

"...Would you like to help with dinner later tonight?"

"Okay."

"Good. What would you like?"

"Saa-chan."

"Hm?"

"What happened?"

"...Nothing."

"Liar."

He frowned.

"Your smile is just pretend. I wanna know what's wrong." She found herself reaching to trace the scars on his face with gentle fingertips, and he pushed her hand away, not roughly. "Are you waiting for Axel to come home so you can tell all of us at the same time?"

"...Yes."

She knew he probably hadn't been planning to tell them at all, but whatever. Lea could get the truth out of him. "Okay." She kissed his cheek. "We love you, Saa-chan."

"I hope you're not expecting me to return the sentiment."

"You won't say it, but I can see it in your eyes," she said with a grin.

"Get out of here. You've got work to do."

Xion went to change out of her school uniform, and paused when she saw Roxas looking at Isa's computer. "What's wrong?"

"I wonder if this is why Isa's mad..."

She looked over Roxas's shoulder. The computer screen showed a list of classes and grades. "Wait, are those Saa-chan's classes?!" she exclaimed.

"His name's there in the corner, it's gotta be his account. But really? He flunked...whatever '19cFemTheor' is?"

"It can't be! That's not Saa-chan!"

"He flunked." Roxas gave an incredulous little laugh. "Xion, he _flunked_. Mr. I'm-so-smart-and-better-than-you-at-everything flunked, look, it's _right here_."

"Ohhhh, poor Saa-chan," Xion murmured. "No wonder he's upset."

"Whatever. He takes everything too seriously."

It turned out to not be so simple...

"Saa-chan," Xion said a little later, bringing her plate into the living room where Isa was just lying there again, not-reading. "I got some math done, but I'm gonna take a little break, okay?"

"Very well," he said listlessly.

"...Do you mind if I watch _Hannah Montana_ in here?"

He sighed, then dragged himself upright and said, "This is a communal area. Do what you like."

"Really? I thought you hated _Hannah Montana_."

He blinked. "What?"

She resisted the urge to throw a chunk of Pop-Tart at him. He was being so _spacey_, it wasn't like him at all. "I'm gonna watch a show you hate, about a girl who wears a blonde wig and sings!"

"Oh..." He looked as if he wasn't sure how to respond.

"No complaining when I turn the TV on, okay?"

"I told you. Do as you like."

She watched him closely the first few minutes, but when he finally seemed to realize what she was talking about, all he did was wince and then look more earnest about trying to read _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_.

She gave up and leaned comfortably against him, and was pleased to find that it was one of the times when he wasn't going to protest her invasion of his personal space. Which meant he was either feeling affectionate in response to her doing something nice for him, or he was upset and needed comfort. It had to be the latter case this time rather than the former, but Lea was usually better at handling him when he was like this. She'd wait and leave it up to him, and do the best she could in the meantime.

When the show was over, Xion turned the TV off and reluctantly went to take her empty plate to the kitchen and get back to doing homework, but was surprised when Isa stopped her.

"Xion," he said slowly. "Let's-" Then he shook his head. "Never mind. You're busy."

"No, I'm not," she said quickly.

"You have homework."

"What did you want to do?"

"I don't know...I just wanted to go out and do something; the rest of you are better at dreaming up specifics...I simply forgot that, unlike myself, you are not on vacation yet." His expression suddenly darkened. "All three of you are hard at work, _I'm_ the only one wasting time, not earning my keep."

She wanted to reach up and wipe the self-disgust off his face. "What if we all go pick up Axel together?"

She knew he'd like the idea, but he usually had such a poker face - she wasn't expecting his expression to visibly light up so much. Though his voice was still pretty much a monotone when he said, "That is a good idea. Let's do so."

o.o.o.o.o

Lea looked satisfactorily surprised when he found them all waiting for him at the end of his shift. "What the-?! You guys came to pick me up?"

"Axel~!" Both of the younger ones hugged him. He laughed a little as he put his arms around them, then looked up at his old friend. "Isa? What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"...You look like you need a hug."

"..."

"Oh my gosh, you _do_ need a hug?!"

"No," Isa mumbled, but didn't resist at _all_ when Lea came to put his arms around him.

"Oi. _Oi_. What happened?" Lea demanded.

"Isa flunked," Roxas announced, just a little gleefully.

"What?!" Lea yelped as Isa glared.

"I'm sorry, Saa-chan," Xion said. "Your laptop was open, we saw it when we passed by..."

Isa rested his forehead on Lea's shoulder and didn't say anything.

"It was only the one class," Xion added. "He made good grades in all the others."

"Dude! It's not the end of the world!" Lea laughed.

"I know," Isa mumbled again.

Lea shook his head and patted his friend's shoulder. "C'mon, buddy, let's go get some ice cream."

"No. It's too close to dinner."

"Come _on_, Isa, we're not little kids who're gonna spoil our appetites! Both of them eat like horses, anyway."

"The Keybearers are not the ones I'm worried about," Isa said, with just the smallest hint of the old spark in his eyes.

Roxas laughed. "You're the one who never wants to eat anything after ice cream, Axel..."

"Hey!"

It was fun to leisurely make their way home, laughing and talking and watching Isa seem to very quietly cheer up. Then they all trooped back into the house and Lea flopped down in front of the TV to unwind and Roxas moved his homework in there to join him, and Xion went to help Isa in the kitchen and watched him slowly wilt back into gloom again.

"Saa-chan? I can take care of this on my own; do you want to go and hang out with Axel?"

"No."

"...Why not?"

"Because dinner needs to be made, and I've wasted enough time today."

"...Isa, go sit with Axel."

"_No_."

She studied him. "Are you still upset about your grade?"

He slammed the measuring cup back down on the counter. "It's not just the _grade_, Xion, it's _everything_. It's everything, all right? I've taken more than my share of your time, it's your turn, it's _your turn_, you're finished indulging me and that is _acceptable_ to me and I'm perfectly willing to give way to your wishes now. All right? Now stop _pestering_ me."

She stared at him. Then she went and got Lea. "Axel, there is SOMETHING WRONG, you have to talk to him."

Lea stopped laughing at whatever Roxas had just said, and sighed. Then he gave her a tired smile and kissed her forehead and said, "Fine, I'll talk to him, but you know he's just being grumpy again."

"Axel, he's really upset. He really is. I don't know what to do."

"I _told_ you we should get him a puppy," Roxas said.

They all trooped into the kitchen, where Isa seemed to be banging cooking supplies around harder than was necessary.

"Yo. Isa."

"It'll be another half an hour or so, you'll have to wait."

"No, I'm not hungry, I meant- *sigh* Isa, I've _told_ you before, it's okay to not be perfect, right?"

Isa whirled, scattering rice all over the floor. "You think it's just a matter of having unreasonable expectations of myself? I _failed the class_, Lea. That means I didn't earn the last three credits I need to meet graduation requirements. They don't offer that class in the summer, Lea! Only in the fall or spring semesters."

There was a pause.

"Are the three of you really that stupid?" Isa said in exasperation. "I'm not graduating this month after all. Don't you understand? I'm _out of time_. If I can't re-take that class in the summer, then I can't earn my degree - but I want to make it quite clear that I have resigned myself to this, and will stay faithful to the agreement we made. Although I am extremely displeased about the wasted time, effort, and munny, I want to assure you, since you seem to find it important, that I harbor no ill will toward any of you whatsoever."

"Waaaiiiit," Lea said. "You can't graduate without that class?"

"No. Obviously. I didn't exactly have the leisure to enroll in non-mandatory classes," Isa said coldly.

"But why don't you just take it next year?" Roxas said in confusion. "You said you can take it in the fall, right? Just take it again and pass it and whoo, you're graduated."

"Yeah," Lea said. "I bet it'll even be easier at the Twilight Town college."

Everyone looked at him. "Twilight Town?" Roxas and Xion echoed at the same time.

"Yeah. Pffft, after doing time at Radiant Garden University, no way they won't let you in."

"Lea," Isa said in exasperation, "I hope you're not seriously suggesting that I earn my degree in _Twilight Town_."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Lea! There is a _reason_ I wanted to graduate from a university with a reputation like Radiant Garden's! Graduating college in Twilight Town isn't much better than graduating from high school in the Garden!"

"Considering you're a high school dropout, I'd stay that's a step up..."

"I hope you're not trying to make light of the _destruction of our homeworld_ fourteen years ago."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Wait, wait, _wait_," Roxas said. "What are you guys talking about? Isa's not gonna go to college in Twilight Town, are you?"

"Certainly not."

"Why _not_?" Lea demanded. "You can get in easy, take that class, and - like Roxas said - whoo, you're done!"

"I didn't mean Twilight Town!" Roxas insisted.

"Lea," said Isa, "it's not simply a matter of 'getting in easy.' There's an application process and a plethora of fees, not to mention the small matter of HAVING TO RE-TAKE HALF MY CLASSES. There's a limit to how many credits can be transferred, Lea! It would mean at least another two years of school. Honestly, I've had enough, I can't tolerate anymore. I have to graduate from the Garden or not graduate at all."

"Yeah, see?" Roxas said triumphantly.

"I'd rather let these last three years go to waste than settle for such an unappealing alternative. My deepest regret is that the years were wasted for the three of you, not just me."

"But why does it have to be a waste?" Xion pleaded. "If you can't change colleges, why don't you just take the last class again here, in the fall?"

Isa stared at her.

Before he could speak, though, Lea exclaimed, "What do you mean, take it here?! We're going to Twilight Town, remember?"

"What?! Why?!" Roxas burst out.

Lea stared at him. "Did you _forget_, Roxas? Three years in Radiant Garden, and then we move to Twilight Town. That was the deal."

"No! I like it here!"

"Axel," Xion said, "I mean, that's what we said, but it's just one semester. We can stay a little longer and let Saa-chan graduate, right? And then we can leave after that."

"NO!" Roxas yelled. "I don't wanna _leave_!"

Now all of them were staring at each other in helpless, confused frustration.

"Roxas, it's _Twilight Town_," Lea said. "I thought you _wanted_ to move there! You love Twilight Town, that's _our place_! You hated it here, remember?"

"Yeah, like _ages and ages_ ago. This place is awesome. I'm not gonna pick up and leave and never see the Garden again. I can't leave my friends, we made _plans_! I wanna graduate here, too, and I _have_ to have the skater's park, and there's no waterfalls there, and-"

"Roxas, you can skate all over the place in Twilight Town."

"Yeah, where it's all crowded and people call you a crazy hooligan. Skater's park is different, they built it FOR US."

"Roxas," Lea said in disbelief, "are you _seriously_ saying that you want to live in Radiant Garden FOREVER? Seriously? Are you seriously saying that?"

"He's been here for three-quarters of his life," Isa murmured thoughtfully. "No surprise that it's come to feel like home to him..."

"I like the Garden."

"So, what, you hate Twilight Town now?" Lea said angrily.

"No...I still miss it sometimes, but...you know, I'd miss the Garden more," Roxas said uncomfortably.

"Rox!" The betrayed look on Lea's face hurt - for a moment, until it turned crafty. "C'mon, don't you want to see your little friends again? Hayner and Pence and Olette, didn't you say you miss them?"

"Well...yeah, I miss them...I mean, it'd be cool to see them again. I'd like that." Roxas's face hardened again. "But we live HERE now, Axel. I wanna stay."

"Gah, why are you so _stubborn_!"

"Can't we decide this later?" Xion pleaded. "I mean, _I_ want to go back to Twilight Town, too, but I'm not in a hurry or anything...we have a whole semester to figure this out, right?"

Now Lea was turning that disbelieving, wounded look on her. "Whaddaya mean, a whole semester?! We were supposed to hit the door as soon as you finished your finals for junior year."

"But we don't _have_ to, Axel," she said in frustration. "Sacred moon, we can wait a few months for Isa, can't we?"

"It's a whole 'nother semester!"

"It's _one class_!"

"You _know_ he's exaggerating about the credit thing, right? Because he always does, he's not gonna have to re-take _half his classes_, he always makes it sound like a bigger deal than it actually is because he just haaaaas to always get his way-"

"Excuse me, _I'm_ the one who always 'has to get his way'?" Isa said icily.

"Are you accusing me of something?" Lea growled.

"Merely your insufferable insistence on always having the last word and getting everything you want regardless of how it will affect other people-"

"Oh, I'M the one who always HAS to get everything I want?! Well, I'll tell you what I DIDN'T want, Isa, and that was SLAVING AWAY FOR THREE YEARS so that _you_ could get your precious flaming TOTALLY USELESS COLLEGE DEGREE instead of getting a REAL JOB like SOME PEOPLE in this room-"

"Oh, so dead-end employment with few benefits and no future is your definition of a 'real job,' rather than a fulfilling career you could _actually use your talents_ for-"

"I never finished tenth grade and I turned out FINE, just like YOU would've if you hadn't INSISTED on chasing after the perfect life you never had and'll never get because you've never, ever accepted the fact that we'll _never be normal_, Isa, you can't just lose your freaking heart and have fire dancing at your fingertips for a decade, then come back and just expect everything to be same as when we were _freaking stupid kids_ who didn't have a _clue_ what we were getting into-"

"Are you fighting about munny again?" Roxas suddenly realized.

"Axel!" Xion wailed, nearly in tears, "I _told_ you, I still have so much from the Organization, I can give you as much as you need-"

"WE'RE NOT TAKING YOUR MUNNY," Lea & Isa thundered at the same time.

"Don't yell at her!" Roxas roared back, stepping in front of Xion as if to shield her. "You two think you're always right and you're always in charge and you can always push us around, but you DON'T! We're your friends, not your lackeys! You're not the boss anymore, _Saïx_, and you don't know as much as you think you do, Axel! Just because we're younger than you and stupider than you-"

"I never said you were stupid, Roxas!"

"-you can't just keep deciding things like we don't matter and acting like you're too good for us to help! I wanna throw this munny at your freaking heads and I hate you and you're so _stupid_ and I-"

"Let's have a boss battle," Xion suddenly suggested. "That used to make us feel better when people were mad at each other in the Organization..."

"Can't," Roxas said with a mocking look at the other two, "we'd just kick their butts."

"You think I can't take you just because I lost my fire?" Lea snarled. "Just let me-" He seemed to wilt a bit. "Let me go...dig my chakrams out of the closet, ARGH sometimes it's a pain being human..." Isa was silently looking at his empty hand, as if thinking similar thoughts about Lunatic. Roxas's smug expression faded, and he considerately did not summon his Keyblade.

"We could get jobs," Xion suggested. "Roxas and me."

"No," Isa and Lea said in flat unison.

Roxas flared up again. "Why not?"

"You are to focus wholly on schoolwork while you are still students, you do not need unnecessary distractions," Isa said, at the same time Lea stormed, "I'm working my tail off for _all_ of us, okay? You guys finish school and _I'll_ take care of everything else, that's how it's supposed to work."

"What'd you say?" Roxas said in confusion.

Xion shook her head. "Then I'll LOAN you munny. Pay me back, whatever; just don't use this as an _excuse_ to be all miserable and keep whining and fighting with each other, because I HATE it when you guys fight and I HATE seeing you both so tired and worn-down and I hate, hate, hate when everyone's so miserable and angry and biting each other's heads off when we're supposed to be a FAMILY! Families are supposed to love each other, not keep hurting each other!"

"Life Lesson number six billion whatever," Axel said wearily. "Family members sometimes like to tear each other apart."

"No doubt," Isa added slowly, "because one can more successfully hurt a family member without losing the relationship entirely, as opposed to hurting others with whom there is a less fundamental bond."

"What are you saying?" Xion said, now crying in earnest. "Families hurt each other _more_ than friends do...?"

Roxas put an arm around her. "You guys are jerks," he told them. "Maybe we don't want to be your family anymore."

"Roxas, it doesn't work like that," Lea said quickly. "When you're family, you're family for life, you can't just get rid of us. That's why we have to go to Twilight Town _together_, we can't just leave people behind."

"Why do we have to go to Twilight Town at all! We just stay and let Isa finish school and then everyone's happy!"

"_Not_ everyone's happy! You may love it here, Roxas, but _I_ don't! All I see in these streets is a life I'll never get back, a childhood that was over a long time ago, memories from the most horrible day of my life! There's _nothing_ for me here."

"There's your mom," Xion whispered, sniffling. "And your brothers and sisters, your other family-"

"I mean, yeah, there's them," Lea said uncomfortably. "But, Xi...you're my family now, you know? People grow up and leave home and start new lives. You're my new life now, the three of you. I'll miss Mom and everyone...I really will...but I'm not...living for them anymore...you know?"

"There should be a way to live both places," Roxas grumbled. "Stupid corridors, I wish they still worked, then we could go back and forth whenever we want..."

"The dark corridors are the same as they always have been," Isa said in a sulky voice. Lea nudged him, and Xion poked Roxas, and they both went quiet.

Then Lea sighed and said in a pleading voice, "Roxas, Twilight Town really means a lot to me. Whenever things got really bad in the Organization, that's where I'd go, that's where I'd get the closest to feeling happy again. All those sunsets together, all that ice cream, everything we talked about...doesn't it mean anything to you?"

Roxas shifted uncomfortably. "I miss it, yeah. I _like_ Twilight Town, you know? A lot. I just...don't really wanna live there anymore. Not if I have to give up the Garden." He gestured with the arm he wasn't holding Xion with. "This is _my_ new life, Axel, you know? You guys, and being here - I'm growing up, too. I left the old place and now I'm here, and...maybe I can leave for a little bit, but I _can't_ give it up forever, Axel. You know? Not forever. It's like...like a little piece of my heart is here, or something...have you ever felt like that?"

Lea shook his head, smiling a little. "Yeah, Rox. I know what you mean."

"There has to be a way," Xion said hopelessly. "It's not fair to make Isa work so hard for so long and then he won't even get what he worked so hard for...it's not fair."

"Hey, no one _made_ him nearly kill himself with school," Lea said.

"A mistake," Isa grumbled. "Though I do _not_ agree with you about the value of a college degree, Lea, I do regret now thinking it was something I myself should have aspired to."

Xion raised her head. "Isa, you're not giving up, are you?"

"I see little choice about the matter. I told you, I have resolved myself to it."

"Isa! You're ONE CLASS away! Don't quit now when you're so close to finishing!"

"We made an agreement," Isa said stubbornly. "Three years."

"Who cares about the 'agreement'! No one's gonna make you fight a Dustflier because you couldn't finish college in three years! Axel, tell him he's being stupid!"

Lea fidgeted. "Will they really make you re-take half your classes...?"

"Xion, I'm _tired_," Isa said. "The workload I took on was too much, even for me; I had not taken that into consideration at the beginning. At least being a Nobody dulled the effects of overwork, but I no longer have this benefit. I can hardly stomach the thought of an extra semester, and to transfer to another institution is unthinkable... I was counting strongly on being permanently finished with school by the end of this month, and am honestly loath to endure even one more class."

"Then take next semester off and rest up and finish in the spring!" she yelled. "Then me and you and Roxas can all graduate together!"

"Noooo!" Lea wailed. "That's a whole 'nother _year_...!"

"And then we just go to Twilight Town after all, right?" Roxas complained. "Which was exactly what I _didn't_ want to do?"

"WHY ARE YOU ALL SO _SELFISH_?!" Xion screamed. She threw Roxas's arm off her shoulders and turned her back on all three of them and marched out the door with angry tears spilling down her cheeks.

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: ...hopefully in my Sora/Xion Day fic on January 30th. *sweatdrop* Though if it gets invaded by too much AkuSaiRokuShi, I might just use it for the "Making up" theme of this challenge, I dunno. Whatever. In any case, there _will_ be a Part 2, regardless of what series it ends up in.

Lol, glaring mistake in one part, but I liked the line too much to try to fix it... *sweatdrop* Maybe no one will notice... Or maybe some of these post-canon AkuSaiRokuShi stories will just be slightly AU from each other. *sweatdrop*

I love SaiShi. ;; I mean, I love AkuRoku and AkuShi and SaiRoku and SaiRokuShi and _every single combination_ of my OT4 (platonically XD; RokuShi's the only one I can tolerate as romance), but SaiShi is the weirdest because they hate each other so much in canon and it never occurs to anyone to do them in fandom and so many of Xion's fans hate Saïx and Saïx's fans hate Xion...but fluffy SaiShi is so amazingly adorable to me. ;;

Complete: 5/30


	5. BbF&ML: Day 24 - Making up afterwards

**A Kingdom Hearts fanwork: 30 Day OTP Challenge by Ericandy, written by Raberba girl**

**Day 24 - Making up afterwards (rough draft)**

_Sora/Xion Day, 30 January 2013_

Summary: And Sora saves the day again. Attempted/failed fic for Sora/Xion Day.

A/N: **Direct sequel to **_**BbF&ML: **__**Day 23 - Arguing**_**.** In case you haven't read that fic, my post-KH3 headcanon for AkuSaiRokuShi is that the four of them agree to live in Radiant Garden together long enough for Isa to earn his college degree. In this fic, they've been a family for three years now; technicalities aside, Roxas & Xion are about eighteen.

o.o.o

Xion eventually got tired of walking around crying and bumping into things, so she finally sat down by a fountain to continue crying. Crying and crying. She was the only one who ever cried, it wasn't fair. Maybe the other three were still Nobodies and couldn't feel anything; maybe they were somehow giving their tears to her so she had to cry for all four of them. Didn't matter; whatever it was, it still sucked, and she wanted to _hit_ them. "Jerks! All of you are _jerks_, gah, I hate you!"

Maybe she was PMSing. She never knew she was until afterwards. Then she'd always apologize a lot to the boys, especially Roxas, since Lea could escape to work and Isa to the university, but Roxas was stuck with her at school all day. Roxas would be like, "Whatever; are you _finally_ gonna go skateboarding with me now?" and Lea would say, "Aw, it's okay, Xi," and look really relieved; and Isa would just grunt and tell her to do her homework.

"I _don't_ miss you," she said fiercely, as if they could hear her. Didn't miss them and their selfish, pig-headed bickering at all. Not at all.

...She did kind of miss them, though. Not the bickering, but Lea's smile and Roxas's companionship and Isa's reliability. Those were the parts she missed. "I _don't_!" she insisted, and burst into fresh tears.

"Don't what?" He had to say it a couple of times before she heard him.

"Huh?" Then she looked up and saw the sweet-faced young man leaning over her, seeming to glow in the sunset.

"_Sora_!" she shrieked, utterly delighted. She'd had _no_ idea he was coming, it was so amazing and wonderful to see him, especially at this moment when she so desperately needed a friend. Xion flung herself up and into his arms. She was at a terrible angle, unable to support her own weight at all, but he held her so securely that she barely noticed. "Sora! Sora! You came?!"

He laughed. "Well, I wanted to see you guys, anyway - I've been missing you and Roxas a lot. But- Well, it's this week, right?"

"Huh?"

"Or next week, maybe. I was planning to stay a while, just to visit."

"What's this week?"

He studied her, mildly confused. He'd grown so much... He was definitely taller, his shoulders and arms a lot bigger and more sculpted than she remembered. He looked very handsome, much more man than boy. "Didn't Axel ask me to come?"

"Axel?"

"You know. To help you guys move."

She got a cold feeling in her stomach. "You're here to take us to Twilight Town when our finals are over?"

"Well, I guess so."

Her fingers tightened in the fabric of Sora's shirt. "He just assumed, didn't he. Just thought he didn't even have to bother to tell us, because we'd all agree."

"...Am I not supposed to be here?"

"No," she said, then "Yes" immediately because she wanted him, and she squeezed her arms tighter around him and rested her face on his shoulder. She meant to cry some more, but it seemed like she'd finally used up all her tears.

They stood there for a while, holding each other quietly.

"You know," Sora finally murmured, and it was like she could read his mind.

"It feels so right, holding you," she murmured back. "Like I'm-"

"-together-"

"-with my-"

"-other half." They looked at each other and smiled, somehow not feeling surprised.

Then Sora suddenly blinked and backed away with an embarrassed laugh. "What am I saying, I should feel like that with my girlfriend, right...?"

Xion found herself blushing. "Yeah."

Sora took a deep breath. "So, are things going okay for you guys? You sounded upset earlier..."

"I am! I am _fed up_ with them, all _three_ of them."

"What'd they do?"

"Oh, just, all being _stupid_, and _stubborn_, aaaarrrrggghhhh I hate boys..."

"Oh...sorry."

"Not _you_," she said in amusement. "I love you. You're wonderful and sweet and nice and you actually care about other people."

He laughed self-consciously and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, I'm nothing special. _You're_ the one who's really nice, Xion. I dunno if I could've forgiven Saïx and moved in with him the way you did."

"He's Isa now..."

"Oh yeah. Sorry."

She smiled. "You could've, easier than I did. I didn't have a choice at first, we just...all had to go where Axel went. Because he's ours, we can't just let him go, even if it means putting up with someone we hate." She blew out a breath. "But...Axel loves _all_ of us, all three of us, and after a while, me and Roxas could finally see why. Isa isn't Saïx. He can still be a jerk, and mean, and sometimes I want to smack him, but I love him now, too, and I know he loves me. Because we can _see_ each other now, you know? We couldn't before. We really did become a family after a while." Then she frowned. "Which is why I can't just let him throw away all his hard work, because I _care_ about him now, darn it! And the reason he's _insisting_ on keeping his promise is because he thinks me and Roxas are worth keeping promises to. He's so STUPID!"

"For thinking you're worthwhile?" Sora said in confusion.

"_No_! Gah, I don't know!"

"Um...you wanna get some ice cream and vent some more?"

"No! No ice cream! That's _their_ thing!" Roxas and Axel and Isa were dishonoring what sea-salt ice cream stood for. "Let's see what the bakery's got instead."

"Sounds good."

They went and bought cupcakes, then sat on a bench eating them and watching the stars come out as Xion explained the details. "It's just _one class_, but Isa can't graduate without it, so I want to stay _here_ just _one more semester_ so Isa can get his degree, but Axel wants to go to Twilight Town NOW and won't let us stay, and Roxas doesn't want to live in Twilight Town at _all_ because he loves the Garden too much now, and I wanna stay here a little longer but I _do_ wanna go back to Twilight Town someday because I miss it, and Isa made his stupid precious promise that he'd graduate in three years, but now that he can't he wants to go to Twilight Town anyway because he promised and he can't stand Axel being miserable even though it's just ONE MORE CLASS, _one class_, and he's been moping all day and freaking me out and he actually sat through _Hannah Montana_ without saying a _word_ and I think we burned dinner because we were arguing so much and it's just so _frustrating_ because I'm tired and there's always soooo much homework and I think I'm failing math but I'm scared to tell Isa and Axel, and finals are coming up and the concert and there's just _so much to do_, soooooooo much..."

Sora tossed his most recent cupcake wrapper into the lid of the bakery box, dusted crumbs off his hands, put his arms around Xion, and hugged her again.

She closed her eyes and let herself be hugged.

"I know what it's like," he finally said, gently stroking her hair. "Everyone having all these expectations of you, everyone needing your help... Like, being pulled in a million directions at once, and the whole time you can feel that your best friends are in trouble and all you wanna do is go find them and help them, but you can't because you're stuck because everyone else needs you to help them, too, and if you mess up then it means _all these worlds_ will get swallowed in darkness, so you can't make any mistakes..."

Xion found herself crying softly again, though she wasn't sure this time if it was herself she was crying for. Sora's eyes were dry, but her own heart seemed to pulse with the memories of his grief and frustration.

They were both startled by the tinkly opening notes of "Working Together."

"What-?"

"Oh! My phone, sorry." Xion slipped it out of her pocket to see who was calling. "Ugh, Isa," she muttered, pressing the green button. "Hello?"

_"I am required to tell you that I am deeply sorry for upsetting you, and I beg your forgiveness,"_ he said in a haughty tone.

"Tell Axel that I don't care _what_ you say when you're only saying it because they're holding your computer hostage," she said, and hung up.

Sora was staring at her, wide-eyed.

"Isa practically lives on the computer," Xion explained. "We can make him do pretty much anything if we threaten to smash it. It has to be _really_ important, though, because he nearly kills us afterward."

She was surprised when Sora grinned. "You must be _really_ important, Xion."

She grinned back.

Just as her phone rang again.

She sighed. "Hello?"

_"Xion!"_

_"Xion, I-!"_

_"We are first,"_ Isa's voice cut in, _"courteously informing you that you are on speakerphone."_

"Thanks." She didn't bother to courteously inform them that she wasn't alone.

_"Xion okay fine I'm really, really sorry,"_ Lea said in a rush. _"I was selfish, I'm a horrible person and I don't deserve to live, you guys should probably just shoot me if I wasn't the one paying all your bills-"_

"I can tell you just sound soooo sincere."

_"Xion."_ That was Roxas, sounding near tears, and from the way her heart ached, she knew that it wasn't just an act. At least, partially. _"Xion, please, we can work this out. Just come home, okay? You ran off and I couldn't find you and Axel said to just let you cool down, but my chest hurts and I know you're not okay."_

"I'm _fine_, Roxas. I just don't want to see you guys now."

_"See, Rox? She's fine."_

_"What do we do to make you wanna see us again?"_ Roxas insisted.

"Isa has to promise to finish school, and Axel has to promise to wait for him, and you have to let me go back to Twilight Town _someday_, and all three of you have to hug and make up and be nice to each other, and to me."

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"...Okay-"_

"And you all have to MEAN IT."

_"Xion, are you trying to kill Isa or something?"_ Lea said wryly.

"He'll do it," she said, "if it really is important to him."

_"What is important to me,"_ Isa said coldly, _"is that your whims are disrupting the entire evening for all four of us, since Lea and Roxas refuse to leave you to your own devices. Apparently, they are incapable of wasting only their own time; they seem to require mine, as well."_

"_What_ time? You're on vacation!"

_"Which could be spent reading rather than tramping around Radiant Garden searching for you."_

_"Isa, shut up!"_ Roxas cried. _"She'll get mad at you and then she'll_ never_ come home!"_

"I'm _already_ mad at you all!" Xion yelled.

_"Can you at least be mad at us in the kitchen, while we're eating dinner?"_ Lea pleaded.

"No. I want to be mad out here, by myself."

_"Are you really by yourself?"_ Roxas suddenly said.

"It's none of your business."

_"Of course it's our business,"_ Isa said sharply, _"depending on who your associate is."_

_"Flaming pants, Xion, you're not with some creep, are you?!"_ Lea cried.

"_No_!" Xion yelled. "I'm with a friend, okay? A _friend_."

_"And how long have you known this 'friend'?"_

"Isa, stop freaking out, I'm not gonna get kidnapped or anything, okay?"

_"Yes, because a kidnapper would have the courtesy to inform you of his heinous plans before actually carrying them out,"_ Isa said, in such a monotone that it took a moment for Sora to register the sarcasm.

"Oh my gosh, it's Sora, okay?! I'm with Sora! Sacred moon, you guys need to chill!"

_"Sora?"_ all three of them chorused in surprise.

Then, from Isa, _"What is he doing here?"_

and Lea, _"Let me talk to him!"_

and Roxas, _"Oohhh, _that's_ what I was feeling!"_

and then suddenly the three of them were coming around the corner. The two groups stared at each other. "Hi," Sora finally said.

There was a flurry of sound and activity. Roxas ran to glomp his Other and then yell at him in agitated delight; Lea was right on his heels to make rapid-fire inquiries.

Isa watched to make sure they were all distracted, then turned to Xion. "Earlier," he said in a low voice, "I wasn't _completely_ lacking in sincerity. I...truly am sorry, Xion. For upsetting you. Your face is much better suited for smiling."

She hugged him, and when she saw his eyes flick to the others, she grinned and squeezed him tighter. "I love you even when other people are watching."

"Yes, I know," he grumbled.

"Saa-chan."

"Hm?"

"It's only one class. _One_."

"I know," he groaned softly. "But after three years of nonstop overwork, it just seems like the last straw..."

She patted him. "We'll help you. You don't have to do everything all by yourself, that's why we're a family."

He laid a hand on her shoulder. "I know. Thank you, I will try to remember that. By the way, you _are_ coming home now, right? The other two are practically in hysterics, and I can't get anything done."

She laughed. "Come on, let's go rescue Sora from their pestering."

As they approached, Sora was saying, "Yeah, that's what I figured. Xion was telling me earlier."

"This shouldn't be such a big deal," Lea groaned. "But everyone's freaking out about it..."

"Yeah, and you're the worst one, Mr. Zomg-I-Can't-Stay-In-Radiant-Garden-One-More-Second," Roxas pouted.

Sora was thinking. "Why don't you guys just travel back and forth between Radiant Garden and Twilight Town?"

"Can't use dark corridors," Lea said shortly.

"_One_ of us can't risk the corridors," Isa corrected in a growl, eyes averted. "The other three are strong enough to handle them."

"But we agreed we _wouldn't_," Roxas said with a frown.

Xion took Isa's hand in both of hers, startling him into meeting her eyes. "You're one of us, Saa-chan," she said quietly. "We've never felt like you were holding us back."

"I wonder whom you think you are addressing with that ridiculous moniker," he said frigidly, forced to keep up appearances in the presence of an outsider, but he squeezed her hand in acknowledgment, and his eyes glimmered a little.

"Actually, I wasn't thinking of the dark corridors," Sora said. "Why don't you guys use a Gummi ship?"

"Oi, Roxas," Lea said casually, "where'd we leave our spaceship parked?"

"Huh? We don't have one," Roxas said in confusion.

Lea gestured mockingly and raised an eyebrow at Sora.

Sora chuckled. "Well, I can give you one, I've got a ton of them."

Lea's cheeky expression dissolved into astonishment. "You'd _give_ us...?"

"I _told_ you you were the best Other ever," Roxas crowed.

"I can give _each_ of you one, if you want. Seriously, I have a TON."

The four of them stared at each other in delight. "Yeeeessss!"

"Sora, I owe you _so much ice cream_ for this."

"Hey, you're my friends! I'm happy to help you guys out."

Roxas glomped him again and Lea did a little victory dance and Xion grabbed Isa's hands again to jump up and down in excitement, though he simply stood there. He did give a small smile, though.

"I get the red one!" Roxas announced, pumping his fist in the air.

"What? _I_ get the red one," Lea insisted. "Red is _my_ color, duh."

"You don't own the color red, Axel!"

"But I'd look cooler in a red Gummi ship than you would, so there."

"Sora, I can have a red one, can't I?"

"Stop behaving like children," Isa cut in. "I'm sure that Sora has more than one red ship to spare."

"Oodles," Sora assured them. "All four of you can have red, if you want."

"The color is low priority," Isa said. "The specifications are far more important."

Sora called up a holo-display, featuring rows and rows of Gummi ship models. "There's basically three kinds: high attack power but low defense, high defense but low attack power, and stuff in between."

Isa gestured at his chosen vessel, making Lea grin.

"Isa, that one's purple."

"Your point being...?"

"I want a blue one," Xion said happily. "It reminds me of someone I like."

"Apparently it's my lot in life to be constantly surrounded by sentimental fools," Isa grumbled, though he didn't even wince when Xion planted a kiss on his cheek.

That night after dinner, while the boys were ooohing and aaahing over their new ships, Xion stepped back onto the ledge where Sora was watching with a gratified look on his face. "Sora."

"Hey, Xion," he said, and laughed when she hugged him.

"Thank you," she whispered. "This really means a lot to us."

He raised his arms to hold her, smiling affectionately. "Anything to help you out, Xi. You're really important to me, you know."

She raised her head and smiled. "You're important to us, too, Sora. I wish you'd let us repay you..."

"Hey, I don't need anything. Besides, I'm doing myself a favor, too." He winked. "This way I'll get to see you more."

"Aww, I'm so flattered. I'll be sure to visit you lots."

"I'll be holding you to that promise."

She laughed. "I'll look forward to keeping it. Hey, do you want to get Naminé and Ven and everyone all together for Christmas?"

"It's like you read my mind...!"

o.o.o

Author's Notes: ...Well, if I ever needed proof that my muse refuses to ship Sora/Xion, here it is: the best I could do for Sora/Xion Day was write an AkuSaiRokuShi fic. *headdesk* I'm sorry, Sora/Xion fans, especially Guggi. ;; This pairing just doesn't click for me, even when I try...

Ftr, I think there are several characters whom you could say are "half of Xion's heart." Since this was meant for SoXi Day, I tried to make it Sora here, but then Roxas got jealous and shoved his way in, too. (So I guess they all have thirds now. XD)  
Though RokuShi in this universe will stay firmly platonic, since it would mess up their adorable dynamic if they fell in love with each other, and there's someone else I intend to ship Xion with, anyway. (Not Riku. XD He had his turn with her in Stepsibs, and politely chose to decline a second opportunity.)

I love platonic RokuShi and SaiShi so freaking much... X3


	6. Day 13 - Eating ice cream

**A Kingdom Hearts fanwork: 30 Day OTP Challenge by Ericandy, written by Raberba girl**

**Day 13 - Eating ice cream (rough draft)**

Summary: Sometimes, science lessons can be useful for more than making good grades.

o.o.o

The two young Nobodies sat at the top of the clock tower, laughing.

"No way that really happened," Axel said, taking another bite of ice cream. "Mmh! Cold. Ah."

"Brain freeze?" Saïx inquired, licking his own ice cream.

"No, I just- Mmh. But yeah, that guy's just a big rock, no way he'd be caught dead in a girly store like that."

"Search his room if you don't believe me. And if you're too chicken, I suppose I'll have to sneak in myself and get a photo."

"Don't bother! _I'll_ check it out and prove you're a liar."

They laughed again. After a moment, Axel smiled out at the sky. "Man, that's an awesome sunset..."

"Mm." Saïx glanced over at him and grinned. "I bet you don't even know _why_ it looks so beautiful."

"Huh?"

"All those shades of red - it's because visible light contains different wavelengths, which we perceive as different colors. The shorter wavelength components like blue and green are scattered more strongly than the longer ones as they travel through the atmosphere, so it is the red and orange hues which reach our eyes the most intact during sunset."

"Isa, are you even speaking English?"

"Lea, we learned this in fifth grade."

"Did not!"

"Admittedly, it was less detailed than the similar lessons we had in subsequent grade levels, but you ought to have remembered the elementary school lecture, at least."

"Light is made up of many colors," Axel remembered slowly. "And out of all those colors-"

"Red is the one that travels the farthest," they finished together, then laughed again.

"Man, we talk about the dumbest things when we're out here..."

o.o.o.o.o

"Hey, Roxas." The boy glanced at him inquiringly. "Bet you don't know why the sun sets red. You see, light is made up of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest."

"Like I asked! Know-it-all," Roxas chuckled. The two of them laughed together, best friends enjoying ice cream on the clock tower just like another set of best friends had done years before.

o.o.o.o.o

_'Well. What was I expecting?'_ Lea thought in disgust. _'Guess it doesn't matter that it wasn't really Isa all that time. Or how much I needed those two when I had nothing else left. Sea-salt ice cream doesn't erase a year of misery and anger.'_ He took a bite of ice cream and considered just getting up and leaving.

On one side of him, Isa sat and stared sullenly at the sunset, untouched ice cream dangling loosely from two fingers. On his other side, Roxas and Xion were silent, taking an occasional bite of their own treats and looking resentful. _'Yeah. This was a great idea.'_

After a while, Roxas sighed, then finally ventured a look to his right. Just the sight of that shaggy blue hair made him grit his teeth. But...there was also Lea. Who looked really unhappy. _'We're the ones making him unhappy,'_ Roxas thought. Because coming up here was supposed to be something fun they did together, like the three of them used to do back in the Organization, and like Lea said he'd used to do with Saïx back when they were still teenagers. But instead of talking and laughing like back then, they were all just sitting without even saying anything or looking at each other. This wasn't fun at all. And of course it was Isa's fault, because his eyes might be green now, but he still hated them, and the idea of 'having fun' hanging out with him was like trying to 'have fun' with a grouchy tiger.

He heard Xion sigh a little on his other side. _'Well. Maybe I should do something. Didn't Belle tell me that nothing will happen if I don't try?'_ Roxas couldn't help sighing, too, before he spoke. "Hey. Isa."

Lea and Xion blinked at the unexpected address, and Isa glanced over at Roxas in distaste.

"I bet...I bet you don't know why the sun sets red."

Lea's eyes widened, and Isa frowned. "Pardon?"

Xion smiled a little, recognizing the memory from when she had shared Roxas's heart. "You see...light is made up of lots of colors."

"And out of all those colors..." Roxas continued, Lea echoing him softly.

The four of them spoke the rest of it together. "...red is the one that travels the farthest."

For the first time that day, they were all looking at each other.

Isa did not smile. But his face was...neutral. Which was a decided improvement. "Wherever did you hear that?"

"Someone told me once," Roxas said in a nonchalant tone, licking his ice cream.

"Someone told me that, too," Lea said quietly. "A long time ago."

Isa finally raised his melting ice cream and took the first bite out of it. "It does sound familiar," he murmured non-committally. Which, again, was an improvement over his usual surly tone when speaking in the Keybearers' presence.

"I wonder what happens to the other colors," Xion mused.

Isa paused.

"Oh, no," Lea laughed. "Don't get him started."

"What, do green and blue get bored and decide to take a nap or something?" Roxas said.

"Well," Isa began, almost cautiously. "You see..." The younger two were more interested than he expected.

On Lea's part, the rest of the afternoon kind of felt like school, but since he wasn't the one doing the teaching for once, and he was no longer having to choose sides, he didn't mind very much.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: This story flowed a lot better in my head than it did when I tried to write it. *sweatdrop* Part of that may have been because I waited too long to write it and started forgetting details... Why am I so dang BUSY?! :shakefist:

But anyway. Wouldn't it be so lovely if AkuSai had their own "Why the sun sets red" scene in canon, and double-lovely if AkuSaiRokuShi got one, too? *waves OT4 at Square Enix's face*

Complete: 7/30


	7. BbF&ML: Seen Before

**BbF&ML: Seen Before (rough draft)**

**A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

Summary: Living with the opposite sex can be awkward.

o.o.o

Isa had a moment of panic when he woke up, before he realized that it was an off-Saturday and there was no class. He laid his head back down with a soft, relieved groan, realized after a minute that he was not going to be able to get back to sleep, then climbed out of bed and shuffled about his morning routine.

He ended up falling asleep on the couch, in the middle of reading a textbook. It was the noise in the kitchen that later awakened him, Roxas laughing at something Lea said as they clinked utensils and cookware. Isa raised his head so that he could see over the back of the couch.

"Mornin', Sleeping Beauty," Lea called. "You pull an all-nighter again?"

"It's a _weekend_," Roxas exclaimed in dismay. "I thought you weren't supposed to be a workaholic anymore."

"The workaholicness is from the Isa part of him, not the Saïx part," Lea chuckled.

"Oh."

"For your information, I _did_ actually get a fair amount of sleep last night," Isa said in annoyance, stretching and then standing up. "I simply awakened too early out of habit and came out here to pass the time."

"How many pancakes do you want?" Lea asked.

"None. I'm going to scramble some eggs; would either of you like any?"

"Make mine with cheese and jalapeños," Roxas said.

"All right."

"Hey, _I'm_ using the stove, you have to wait!" Lea insisted.

"Fine." Isa went over to the bathroom and pushed the door open.

Xion, who was smearing lotion over her skin, froze in surprise and stared at him. Isa registered that she was stark naked and stumbled back out, slamming the door shut as a piercing shriek burst from her throat.

"What the-?! Xion was still in there?!" Lea exclaimed.

Isa was too mortified to answer.

"I thought she was-" Roxas's eyes widened. "You saw her naked?"

"No," Isa blurted automatically. He whirled into the bedroom and shut himself in. Then he realized that he would rather already be out there when Xion emerged, instead of the other way around; so, wincing, he came back out, stalking over to the freezer to make some orange juice just so that he would have something to do.

"Is this, like, a _thing_ with you?" Lea was cackling. "I'm starting to think you're doing it on purpose-"

"Each time was an _accident_, and separated by _quite_ a long period of time, SHUT UP," Isa snarled.

"Saïx saw Xion naked," Roxas said blankly, as if he wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about this.

"My name is ISA," Isa growled at him.

"Xion's gonna be mad at you."

"Undoubtedly."

"I'm kinda mad at you, too," Lea remarked, flipping the pancakes over.

"As if you've never walked in on a disrobed female, accidentally or otherwise!"

"Yeah, but those were my sisters, and I was, like, nine. And Larxene made me pay, flaming _pants_ did I pay..." Lea shuddered.

The bathroom door banged open and Xion came sailing out, now dressed and looking miffed. "I think you should apologize," she told Isa.

"I apologize," he mumbled, glaring. "Why didn't you lock the door while you were showering?"

"I forgot to bring clean underwear and had to go get it, and I guess I didn't lock the door again when I came back."

"Why are we talking about your underwear?" Lea groaned under his breath.

Isa silently counted to ten. He had promised Lea that he'd practice being nicer. Swallowing the indignation and embarrassment as much as he could, he said stiffly, "I shouldn't have just assumed you were still asleep, and I should have knocked first. Forgive me."

"It's fine," Xion mumbled, pouring herself a bowl of cereal. "It's not like you haven't seen me naked before, anyway..."

Isa held back an apprehensive whimper and glanced at the other two in resignation. Roxas blinked, and Lea choked on the mouthful of coffee he'd just started to swallow, spitting it all over the stove with disastrous results. "He's WHAT?!"

"You know," Xion said nonchalantly, scooping up a spoonful of Cap'n Crunch. "When they were programming me to kill Roxas and I was in that tank thing. Xemnas was there, then Saïx came in and they talked for a while. I didn't get any clothes 'til the tank broke and I found a coat."

Lea whirled and violently planted a hand on the counter beside Isa, causing some of the orange juice to spill.

"I didn't exactly have a choice about the matter!" Isa snapped. "I didn't have much of a choice about _anything_ in those days..."

"Oh, 'It wasn't my fault because I was possessed!' again, huh? Don't make excuses!"

"At least I never _slept_ with her, as you were often in the habit of doing!"

"_She's_ the one who'd come to _me_ every time there was-!" Lea got a bit tongue-twisted as he remembered that he was supposed to keep it a secret and then realized that there wasn't really any reason to keep it a secret anymore. "She's scared of lightning! She goes nuts, so me and Roxas always had to keep her company!"

"I'm scared of _thunder_, not lightning," Xion protested.

Lea and Isa both ignored her. "I didn't even see anything that time, anyway; it was like seeing a doll. A science experiment, nothing more."

"Oh, right, naked teenage girl floating in front of you and all you thought was 'science experiment'-"

"_Xemnas_ is the one you should be angry at, not me; _he_ was the one staring and leering for who knows how long before I came in-"

"I'm going to KILL HIM-"

"Which would be difficult, since the offending parts of him are already dead-"

"Well, maybe I should kill you instead!"

"Why is it that I always arouse your ire when I refer to her as inhuman, then the _one_ time when doing so is to my advantage, you rage at me for allegedly seeing her as human-"

"Don't make this look like my fault, _I'm_ not the one who walked in on her!"

"I didn't do anything wrong!"

Roxas looked at Xion and said, below the shouting, "I don't think we're gonna get either pancakes _or_ cheese-and-jalapeño eggs. Do you want strawberry Pop-Tarts, or cinnamon?"

"Cinnamon," she said. They didn't bother to toast them, and instead took the box of Pop-Tarts outside where they could finish eating breakfast in peace and quiet.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: **There are some references to my other fics, **_**Fire & Moonlight: Scream**_** and **_**Raindrops & Whiskers**_**.**

I've been frustrated with my muse lately, have been having a difficult time with both writing and drawing...

Then, while clicking around in **CaxceberXVI**'s gallery **on devART** this evening, I came across an MMD picture she did of Xion in that tank (**"Xion :Test tube Princess"**), and it **gave me this plot bunny.** XD Yaaaaay, I managed to write something that cooperated.


	8. BbF&ML: Existence

_**BbF&ML: Existence**_** (rough draft)**

**A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

Summary: Lea didn't realize it would take THE ENTIRE SUMMER, plus a lot of work, traveling, and research, just to get Roxas & Xion enrolled in high school.

A/N: **Uh...one sequence will make a lot more sense if you've read **_**Before Sora**_**. *wince*** It's so stupid how ingrained that fic has become in my headcanon when I haven't even finished it yet... *headdesk*

o.o.o

It felt weird, being in a school again after so long... Lea moved across the courtyard slowly, looking around, noting all the changes, reliving memories. _'Maybe they can just homeschool...'_ But no, Isa's mom had said she couldn't really help them once they reached the high school level material they were supposed to be on, and no one else had both the time and ability to teach them. Roxas and Xion were just gonna have to do their best here at Radiant Garden High.

"Hi...um, I wanted to, uh, sign up my...sign up a couple of kids. As students. For when school starts."

The secretary smiled at him. "Oh, yes, we were expecting you."

"You were?!"

She frowned a little in confusion. "You're Lea Hayes...?"

"Yeah...?"

"A woman called earlier, I believe she is your mother...?"

"Oh! Oh. Yeah, Mom must have called."

She smiled at him again. "The principal will see you shortly."

Lea had an alarmed moment before he realized what she meant. _'I'm the parent now, flaming pants...'_ Well, he'd kind of been from the start, but after all this time, it still amazed him that he kept having these moments. _'...What's gonna happen when they figure out they have hormones?'_ The start of Xion's 'Monthly Fun Times' back in the Organization had been an utter nightmare; now that she and Roxas were both about to get tossed into a sea of other adolescents...

"Are you all right, Mr. Hayes?"

"Huh?"

"You were, er...whimpering."

Lea abruptly stood up, but before he could announce that he'd decided to homeschool after all, the door opened, and the principal herself was smiling at him. "Mr. Hayes?"

"...I've never done this before," he managed to say, not even exactly sure what he meant. He'd never done _anything_ before...enrolled a kid in school, helped a kid with their love life, had a love life himself... _'I'm not a parent. I'm a...mentor. I teach newbs how to do missions, and that's it. ...And I teach zombies about ice cream. And laughter. And friendship. And how to take a freaking bath and zip their own freaking coat and how to cook and use the washing machine and how trains work and what the beach is and flaming pants I really am their dad THIS WAS NOT HOW MY LIFE WAS SUPPOSED TO TURN OUT.'_

"Mr. Hayes, you don't look well."

"I was supposed to date a bunch of hot chicks and fall in love with my soul mate and get married and have babies and raise them up into teenagers. Not have a couple of one-year-old fifteen-year-olds when I'm 25 and single."

"Er, I'm afraid I don't-"

"Am I doing the right thing?! They have no clue how high school works! They'll get eaten alive!"

He wasn't addressing anyone in particular - the shredded remains of Kingdom Hearts, maybe - and was surprised when the principal laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "I was given the impression that the students are not your biological children," she said gently. "Are you fostering them?"

"Uh...sort of..."

"They'll do just fine here," she said in a reassuring voice. "Why don't you have a seat, and we can start getting things in order."

Lea sighed and sat down, and she did the same on the other side of her desk. "Now, then. What are the students' names?"

"Uh... Oh; uh, Roxas and Xion."

"Full names?"

"Huh?"

"Their full names. I need the names that appear on their birth certificates. I'll need to see their actual birth certificates, too."

Lea stared at her blankly. _'Roxas, Number XIII, the Key of Destiny. Xion, Number XIV.'_ "...They don't have family names. Or birth certificates."

She glanced away from the computer and narrowed her eyes at him. "Pardon?"

"Those _are_ their names...Roxas and Xion. That's it."

"Why is that?"

"They just don't."

"...Who are their parents?"

"Nobody." _'Ha, ha.'_

"Mr. Hayes," she said severely. "I need all the information you know about their identities and families."

_'You wouldn't believe me even if I told you.'_ "They don't have any. Roxas is Number XIII, Xion is Number XIV, and I'm the closest thing they've got to family. That's all I can tell you."

She was still obviously not happy with him. "What about their transcripts?"

"*siiiigh* They don't have any. They've never been in school before. My friend's mom has been tutoring them the last few weeks, trying to catch them up, but that's it."

She scooted away from the computer and folded her hands on the desktop, glaring straight at him. He squirmed a little. "Mr. Hayes. I must tell you that this situation is starting to look suspicious. We take children's safety seriously here."

"I didn't kidnap them or anything! Look, they lost their home worlds, and they have amnesia."

"Amnesia," she repeated skeptically.

"You can ask 'em yourself - they don't have memories from before a year or so ago." _'Because they didn't _exist_ before a year or so ago.'_ "We lived in...er, Twilight Town. I mean, come _on_; so many worlds fell to darkness and were destroyed, this can't be the first time you've had to deal with this!"

She sighed. "Do you have their refugee paperwork?"

"Refugee...paperwork?"

Her eyes narrowed again. "Assuming that they 'cannot remember' their worlds of birth, the next best option would be to make sure they are properly registered in Traverse Town's database."

"_Traverse Town_?"

"I'm afraid that I cannot help you until you've got those records sorted out - and in the meantime, the authorities here _will_ be keeping an eye on you."

_'Man, why does stuff like this keep happening...do I really come off as a creep?'_ "Fine," he said aloud, through gritted teeth. "I'll get them some paperwork." If for no other reason than because it might be difficult for Roxas and Xion to get into colleges or get good jobs without it. "I'll be back."

"I hope so, Mr. Hayes," she said coolly.

o.o.o.o.o

"Traverse Town's fun," Sora said eagerly as he sat at the Gummi ship's controls. "There's lots of districts and shops, and there's people there from _all over the universe_, I make so many friends there."

"Is there anywhere to use the skateboards?" Roxas wanted to know.

"Yeah! I'll show you! You wanna come with us, Xion?"

"Sure."

"Work first," Lea reminded them. "We're not going there to play. You guys'll get to run around after we've got this paperwork mess settled, okay?"

"Awww..."

The Moogle in charge of refugee registration in Traverse Town looked at them with an expression that was typically difficult to read. "Homeworlds, kupo?" it inquired, opening two blank forms on its computer.

"Twilight Town for Roxas," Lea said. "And for Xion, Castle Oblivion, I guess- Wait, no, it's the Land of Something now. Land of...of..." He snapped his fingers, trying to remember.

"Departure," Roxas supplied.

"That's it! Land of Departure."

The Moogle typed for a while. "Apologies, kupo," it finally said, "but there are no records of these individuals in either world. No records whatsoever, kupo."

_'Well, there _wouldn't_ be,'_ Lea thought in exasperation. "They're orphans, and they have amnesia. The whole point of this trip was to _establish_ some paperwork for them, you know? So that they can 'officially exist.'"

"I thought we already existed," Xion protested, sounding upset. Lea tried to put an arm around her, and got caught in an arm traffic jam as Roxas and Sora attempted to do the same thing at the same time.

"You've _always_ existed!" Sora declared.

"It's red tape, Xi," Lea tried to explain. "Existing for real and existing on paper are two different things."

"What does tape have to do with anything?' Roxas asked.

"Roxas, I can't play that game right now... Look, Moogle. Both of them were found in the middle of nowhere, they don't remember a thing from before then. _They don't have anything_. We need to _make_ something for them."

The Moogle regarded him for a minute with its inscrutable expression. Then it said, "You will at least need genetic reports for them, kupo. Bring those in, and we'll see what we can do."

Lea rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

As the kids were skateboarding around the Third District, he sat on a bench and called his best friend. "Yo, Isa."

_"What's wrong?"_

Lea smiled a little. "You can tell?"

_"Yes."_

"Yeah, well, this is turning out to be harder than I thought... Is it so hard to just take a photo and crank out an I.D. card?! They're wanting genetic reports on the kids now. I was thinking of getting what I could from Vexen."

_"Even."_

"Whatever."

_"That is a sound course of action, but you also ought to make him sign some sort of release form."_

"Release form?"

_"I'll find something suitable and send you a copy. I don't care in the least, but _you_ would be upset if Even was ever able to legally seize Xion and take her out of your reach."_

"I'll roast him if he tries!"

_"However, as I am trying to tell you, the easier, more ethical, and legally sound way is to make him sign a release and formally renounce any and all claim he might have to Number XIV. You might one day be very glad you did so."_

"Man, you think of everything... Thanks, Isa."

_"Don't mention it."_

Back at the Garden, Lea went to the Royal Research Center alone. He didn't want the kids, especially Xion, anywhere near Vexen's Somebody. "You're gonna give me _everything_," Lea said pleasantly, "ALL the records you have on her, or else we might have to have a little repeat of the last time we were together outside Twilight Town's mansion."

"All right- All _right_! Cretin. But I don't know how much good it'll do you - she doesn't have DNA, not like humans do."

"She _is_ human."

"It's more like computer programming than anything else, like she's an extremely complex video game character-" Even gasped, staring at the packet of papers Ienzo had just handed him.

"What?" Lea demanded.

"I- But- It's impossible! Extraordin- Is this _really_ Number XIV?" Even snapped, expression changing from astonishment to wild delight to suspicion.

"It is the sample Lea gave us," Ienzo said calmly. "He would have to bring Xion herself to us if you want confirmation."

"What _is_ it?!" Lea yelled.

Ienzo smiled a little. "Your Xion appears to have manipulated her own matter yet again - she does, in fact, have human DNA now, though I can assure you that was not always the case."

"Manipulated...?"

"Subconsciously, perhaps. I can't imagine her having the education or intellectual capacity to knowingly change what she is made of."

"Flaming pants."

It turned out that Xion was virtually a genetic twin of Kairi. Roxas, on the other hand, was found to be genetically linked to Ventus, Sora, Kairi, and even Naminé.

"Sooo, there ya go," Lea told the Traverse Town Moogle, pushing the reports at it.

He did not like the response.

"What are you talking about?! Some of these people have never even _met_ Rox and Xi! They don't know they exist - they don't _own_ them!"

"Nevertheless, we have determined that the individuals with the best claim of guardianship over the two minors in question are the people listed, kupo. These guardians must come in to complete the application process."

"But I-! You can't-! This is _stupid_!"

"Can we go skateboarding now?" Roxas asked. "I'm bored."

"Roxas, your future is in jeopardy here, this is kinda important. You wanna be stuck on Destiny Islands until you're 18?"

"How bad is that?" Roxas said cautiously.

"We'll get to go to the beach every day, right, Axel?" Xion said eagerly.

"I'll show you me and Riku and Kairi's secret hideaway," Sora promised.

Lea facepalmed.

o.o.o.o.o

Sapphique King flung open the door and glomped Sora before he'd even finished climbing the porch steps. "I hate it _every time_! EVERY SINGLE TIME you go!"

"I didn't get eaten by monsters, Mom," Sora said, kissing her. "Hey - you remember my friends, Roxas and Xion and Axel?"

Sapphique narrowed her eyes at Lea.

"Look," Lea said, then paused. She already didn't think much of him and didn't trust him. What were the odds she'd hand over to him her 'son' she'd never known she had? "I just...I've been looking after him all this time, you know? And it's less than three years, then it won't matter, anyway."

"What are you talking about?" she demanded. Ven had wandered out onto the porch and was watching, lazily licking at a bar of ice cream.

"I'm trying to get Roxas & Xion enrolled in school. But I can't, because they need paperwork first, and apparently they need you to, uh, sign some stuff for Roxas because...uh..."

"I have _two_ brothers now, Mom!" Sora said eagerly. "Roxas and Ven really are twins after all, sort of." Ven snorted.

"Sort of, but NOT REALLY," Lea corrected hastily.

Sapphique stared. "_What_?"

"I mean, you don't even know him, so, like...it won't matter that..." Lea couldn't bring himself to say it, because he knew it wasn't true. _'Who am I kidding. I'm trying to steal her son from her. Of course she'll never let me. I'm gonna lose Roxas for three years and I don't freaking care, Isa can freaking stay and earn his degree, I'm gonna be living it up at the beach for three years and he can just _deal_, GAAAAHHHH why can I never never never keep my family together-'_

The kids had just finished explaining as much as they knew, which hadn't taken long.

"Pffft...it doesn't even matter," Ven grumbled. "You need _my_ parents' permission, not Mom's, and my parents are frickin' dead, so-"

"Wait, what?" Sora said in confusion.

"Ven-" Sapphique started.

"I'm adopted," Ven said flatly.

Everyone stared. "Whaaaat?!"

Sapphique's face looked tight. "I just...Sora, darling, I-"

"My real dad's dead," Ven said, sounding bored, "no one knows or cares where my fail mom ran off to, so Mom adopted me and now she's my aunt _and_ my mom, and _that's_ why we're brothers, Sora, not because we're brothers for real. So technically, Rox, you're an orphan, and Lea can do whatever he wants."

Xion frowned at him. "Van, stop it. You're hurting them."

Ven finally had the grace to look away. "Sorry..."

"I don't get it," Roxas sighed. "Can we just get this over with so we can go to the beach?"

"Wait, no!" Sora yelled. "What do you mean we're not brothers for real?!"

As, after a few heated minutes, everyone else went inside to drink some lemonade and sort things out, Xion moved up beside Ven, who kept his eyes fixed on the ice cream stick he was twirling in his hands.

"You know," Xion said softly, "you act more like Vani when you're upset."

"Do I?" he mumbled, still twirling.

"They're yelling in there."

"So what."

"The Ven you would be going in to help calm them down."

He abruptly straightened and slammed his hand down on the railing. "I don't feel like Mr. Heart-of-Pure-Light-Everyone-Loves-Him right now, okay? I feel like Vanitas. Not your stupid 'Vani' or 'Kazé,' I feel like _Vanitas_."

"I know how you feel..."

"I know you do," he mumbled, sagging back against the railing as his eyes slipped away from hers.

She leaned on his arm. "Is it because you lost your mom and dad?"

"I don't know," he said stubbornly.

"I never had a mom and dad..."

He went still.

"Just Axel and Roxas. Then Mom - Axel's mom, I mean - and Isa's mom, and...Isa, kind of, too..." She smiled. "I love them all a lot."

"I didn't say I don't love Mom," he said defensively.

"I don't think she cares if you're her 'real' son or not."

"I know."

"I think she _feels_ like you're her real son, and nothing else matters."

"I _know_!"

She jiggled his arm a little, trying to get him to look back at her. "I think you should go tell Sora you love him."

"Don't tell me what to do!" He stormed inside, and she trotted after him hopefully.

It turned out that, biologically, Ven and Sora were cousins; and while Ven had been adopted by Sora's mother, Roxas had not, which meant that Sapphique did not have first claim on him - Ven's biological mother did. Though, as Ven had pointed out earlier, her whereabouts had been unknown for about twenty-three years.

"And it doesn't matter, anyway," Sapphique growled, "because that woman lost custody of her son, and I can't imagine a court judging that she has the right to keep any other children." Sora, Roxas, and Xion looked confused, but Lea's face darkened. Ven remained impassive.

"Sooo, what's that mean?" Ven drawled. "You gonna be the one to give up Roxas after all, Mom? We sure wasted a lot of time."

"Yeah, and who's fault is that?" Lea snapped. "I've had _enough_ complications to deal with on top of your pointless goose chases..."

"Pointless?" Sora repeated, looking lost. "I just found out my brother's adopted...and I only just found out I _had_ a brother a few months ago..."

"Hey." Ven suddenly reached out an arm to wrap around Sora's shoulders and jerk him close. "You know why it was pointless? 'Cuz it doesn't _matter_ if we're cousins or adopted or whatever. We've been brothers since before you were born, and we always will be, okay? Get that pathetic look off your face."

Sora was staring up at Ven with shining eyes. "Ven..."

"And don't _cry_. Ugh, I don't know how Riku stands you..." He grunted when Sora hugged him, but did not push him away.

Xion was grinning a little as she watched. "You kind of act like Vani when you're embarrassed, too," she murmured. "It's cute."

"Shut up."

"Now, hold on," Sapphique said. "I never said I was going to give up Roxas. If all this is true, then..."

Lea laid his head down on his arms and waited.

"Really, Mom?" Ven said scornfully. "You've already got a twenty-five-year-old bum lying around the house, now you're going to take in _another_ kid? Even though he's already got a life and a family in a whole different world, and he'll be grown up in three years anyway? He _doesn't need_ you - he doesn't even want you."

"I like her," Roxas said defensively.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do!" Sapphique shouted at Ven. "I have a _responsibility_, I can't just let some crazy stranger walk off with a boy I was supposed to be taking care of all this time!"

"I'm not crazy," Lea said wearily. Then, under his breath, "Though I think I'm on the way to it..."

"It's not your fault you didn't know about Roxas," Xion told Sapphique. "Maybe he can come visit? But we just came to ask if you'd let him live with us the rest of the time... He's like my brother, you know."

"I have so many brothers," Sora mused.

"We grew up together." Xion started telling Sapphique a bit about life in the Organization, how her first memories had been of Roxas, and how Roxas and Axel had become her dearest friends throughout the year they'd spent together. Ven listened intently, as if stitching together hazy memories in his own mind. "So...we want to live together, you see? And because of Isa, we have to live in Radiant Garden for a while instead of here. Sorry. If it wasn't for that, we could come live here with you, but Isa wants to go to school so much, because he never got to... And, well, we can live together, but only if you let us. Please let us...?"

Lea held his breath and let the puppy eyes do their work.

Sapphique stared. Then she put her face in her hands and burst into tears.

"Mom!" Sora cried, surprised and distressed. Ven wordlessly got up and put his arms around her.

"It's horrible," Sapphique sobbed. "It's _horrible_. It's like we've been through a war..."

"We have," Ven murmured, rubbing her back soothingly. "We survived. We're home." He kissed her forehead. "Some of us just have different homes, Mom." He paused, briefly. "Mine is with you."

Sapphique wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly for a long time. Then she finally raised her tear-streaked face and said to Roxas, "Please come here." He went over and let her hug him, too. Then Sapphique finally sat up and wiped the tears from her face and said briskly, "All right. Lea Hayes, I am going to trust you, and if you hurt Roxas, or ruin him the way I ruined Ven, I will _kill you_."

"You didn't ruin me," Ven mumbled.

Lea mumbled, too. "I've already messed up...I've never had any clue what I'm doing. But I can _promise_ you that I'll keep doing my absolute best. Okay? I mean, literally, this is my whole life now. Trying to do the best I can for the people who are most important to me." He and Sapphique regarded each other a little longer, then reached across the table and clasped hands.

"Fine," Sapphique said. "Let's get over to the courthouse, then, and see what needs to be done."

Birth certificates, it turned out. "Jimmy Kramer," Sapphique stormed, "just _type one up_. You canNOT look at Ven and Roxas and tell me they're not brothers!"

The clerk looked, frowning.

"Or...something," Sapphique faltered. She frowned at them as well, the two young men with identical appearances, except that Ven looked ten years older. "What exactly did you say your relationship was, again?"

"He's my clone," Ven said sweetly.

"Very funny. Jimmy," she ordered, though now slipping a cajoling note into her voice, "just make one, all right? You've got the genetic reports _right there_."

"Accordin' to this," Mr. Kramer grumbled, "this kid here's the son of your boy Sora, but that can't be right - they're the same age..."

"How about this," Lea and Ven said at the same time. Lea looked at him in surprise, but Ven kept right on speaking. "Type us up a birth certificate, or I'll kill you."

"_Ven_," Sapphique said in exasperation.

"He didn't mean it," Xion told Mr. Kramer. Then, with a sly glance at Ven, "What he _meant_ was, you'll make a birth certy thingy for Roxas, or maybe all those files back there might catch fire...or something...you never know." Ven grinned appreciatively at her.

Mr. Kramer frowned. "Huh?"

"Fire," Xion said. A potted plant on the counter burst into flames.

"Holy-!"

Things went much more quickly after that. Roxas now had a birth certificate and was an official citizen of Destiny Islands. He was also half-released from the guardianship of Ven and Sora's mother.

"I'll get my husband to sign this tonight when he comes home," she promised as they all left the courthouse. "You can stay until tomorrow, if you'd like...?"

"We'd love to, but we have to-" Lea started. He paused to take in everyone's expressions: hope, anxiety, pain, longing. "...Yeah, sure. What the heck, it's summer vacation, we've got time to chill..."

It turned out to be convenient, since Riku and Kairi came to hang out with them, and Lea remembered that he needed to talk to Kairi's parents.

"Well, now," the mayor said slowly the next morning, after the situation had been explained to him. "I don't rightly know if that's my prerogative... We adopted Kairi, you see."

If there'd been a desk nearby, Lea would have slammed his head on it.

"If this girl Xion is her sister, then I'm thinkin' you'd have to ask the birth parents, not us, since we only adopted the one girl."

"Kairi's from Radiant Garden, too, remember?" Xion told Lea. "Maybe her parents are there."

"They're not," Kairi said, coloring a little. "They're, um...well, only my grandma is left. I'm going to see her next week, actually - Sora and Riku and I were gonna help her finish moving here to the Islands. Would you like to come with us...?"

"Yeah," Lea said wearily, "maybe she has the next clue in our super-fun little scavenger hunt here."

Kairi's grandmother was very kind, not entirely lucid, and rather excited to find that she apparently had a second granddaughter. She and Xion got along splendidly, but it was difficult to make her understand why they needed her signatures, and also difficult to pry Xion away from her at the end of their extended visit.

"I'll miss you, Grandma," Xion said tearfully, hugging her one last time.

"Come visit me, dear," Grandma said, kissing her and patting her arm.

"I-I'll try."

"I'll come get you whenever she asks," Sora assured Xion.

"Okay. I'll see you, Grandma. Sora will come get me when you want to see me, okay?"

"I'm a kid-stealer," Lea murmured, watching as he waited by the Gummi ship. "I go around and steal people's kids, because I think I love them more than they do."

"Monster," Ven agreed, though he grinned a little to show he was teasing.

Lea glanced over at him, then straightened and looked at him more closely.

"What?"

"I dunno, just... I'll miss you, too, Ven."

Ven shrugged. "I'll see you around." He blinked. "You guys said we'd go to the Coliseum soon, so I _will_ see you."

"Yeah, right," Lea said soothingly, in response to Ven's suddenly hardened tone. "Hey...you been doing okay here?"

Ven's eyes narrowed. "I'm _fine_."

"Don't brush me off. You've been through a lot, it's _okay_ if you're not 'fine.'"

"I'm twenty-five, I feel like I'm fourteen, and I live with my parents. I haven't seen Terra and Aqua in ages because they hate pretending like they don't care I'm not their precious perfect fake Ven anymore. I can't go to school and I have no job, and I'm still trying to get used to the fact that everyone in this world has always hated me no matter _what_ face I have. My little brother didn't even know I existed until a few months ago. I hate his best friend because _his_ brothers made my life hell when we were kids, and I can't stand to look at any of that family because whenever I see them, I want to kill them. I want to hear them scream and see a whole lot of their blood. Okay? That's how I've been doing."

Lea put a hand on his shoulder.

"_Don't_ feel sorry for me," Ven snarled.

"Last time I saw Aqua, she nearly cried while she was telling me that you're avoiding her."

"...They don't look for me," Ven said tightly, nearly unintelligible.

"For one thing, they do; and for another, why should they have to?" Lea tried to remember that he was talking to a fourteen-year-old's mentality, despite the grown man's shoulder he was still gripping. "Just give them a chance, Ven. What's the worst that can happen?"

Ven glared.

"You _already_ think they hate you, don't you? What's the difference?"

"You don't know what it's like!"

"What, I don't know what it's like to have my childhood stolen from me, to get my heart eaten by darkness, to lose everyone I ever cared about, to have to trust myself to perfect, innocent friends who only think I'm awesome because they have no clue how horrible I really am? Right, Ventus. I can't sympathize at all."

Jerkily, Ven got out his phone and squeezed a speed-dial button. He didn't say anything for a long time, even though Lea could hear the faint questioning tone of a woman's voice on the other end. Then Ven finally growled, "If you come, I'll be here." He hung up immediately without waiting for a response. He didn't react when the phone announced a text message, so Lea took it out of his hands to read it himself. He stared, smiled a little, and passed it back to Ven.

_we love you, dearest wind. unbreakable connection. three hearts or four, doesnt matter, we are one._

Ven spun away and marched out of sight.

_'Unbreakable connection,'_ Lea thought. _'Yeah. That's what it is.'_ He smiled as the kids finally started ambling toward the ship, talking happily. _'We chose friendship over power, love over victory. And then we won anyway. That's why we're doing all this.'_ "Ready to go?"

"The multiverse is so huge," Xion told him, eyes shining.

"We have friends and family, like, _everywhere_," Roxas mused.

"I think that's what I like most about adventures," Sora declared.

"You guys make it so worth it," Lea laughed. "C'mon, let's get going."

o.o.o.o.o

On the way to Traverse Town a few days later, Xion kept looking unhappily at her freshly-issued Radiant Garden birth certificate. "But my birthday's still January 14th, right? You said I could pick January 14th..."

"Xion," Lea said, plucking the certificate out of her hand, "_this_ means nothing. _This_ is just a means to an end, so that you can go to school and not keep running into roadblocks every time you want to get a driver's license or get a job or-" _'Or get married...Kingdom Hearts help me...'_ "-or whatever. No one in charge would believe you if you said your birthday was different from your freaking twin sister's, but _we_ know better, okay? We're the ones who matter."

"Isa said that sometimes twins can be born on different days," Xion said dolefully, pulling the birth certificate back and looking at it again.

"Yeah, but a four month difference is a bit much, you know?"

"Roxas gets to have his real birthday on his birth certificate..."

"You can have two birthday parties," Roxas suggested. "One in January, and one in May with Kairi. Twice as many presents."

"Yeah," Xion murmured.

"You have more birthdays than me or Axel or Isa."

Xion studied the birth certificate some more. "Okay."

Lea smiled. "You guys are such kids sometimes..."

The Moogles seemed to have some sort of conspiracy to keep Roxas and Xion out of school. Or to make Lea's life miserable. "_Why_ is that freaking important?!"

"The care of an orphaned minor with no legal guardian falls to the government of the child's homeworld. Not to any unrelated strangers, kupo."

"Orphan means no parents, right?" Xion said cautiously.

"That is correct, kupo."

"Why can't they just be Emancipated?" Lea demanded. "They're nearly sixteen, for crying out loud!"

"Are they employed?" the Moogle asked. "Is their income sufficient enough to support them, kupo?"

Lea leaned to rest his elbows on the counter and drop his face into his hands. This was absolutely ridiculous. _'Of _course_ not. The whole freaking _point_ is to get them in _school_. Slaving away to keep them alive is my job, not theirs.'_ "I'll freaking adopt them, then," he growled into his hands, then raised his head. "Just give me the paperwork, I'll fill it out right now."

"That is out of our jurisdiction, kupo. You'll have to consult adoption agencies on Destiny Islands for the boy Roxas, and Radiant Garden for the girl Xion-"

Lea walked out.

After a whole week of sulking, playing video games with his brother, hanging out with Isa and Roxas and Xion when they weren't busy, cooking with his mom, going shopping with his sisters because he was bored, and going swimming with whoever was available at the time, Lea finally rallied and decided to give it another shot. "Okay. Wish me luck, Isa; I'm gonna be a daddy."

"I don't think I have sufficient luck to lend you. You're going to need quite a lot," Isa murmured, frowning at the heavily-annotated course catalogue in his hands.

"Oh, thanks! ...Though I kind of think you're right."

o.o.o.o.o

"Well," the friendly lady at the agency said, "prospective parents will need to decide on the type of adoption they're interested in, fill out an application, undergo homestudy, attend training and classes-"

"Kingdom Hearts," Lea moaned, "we've been living together for _a year and a half_. They don't have families, the little scattered excuses for families we found already said I could have them, they're gonna be legal adults in less than three years anyway, _all I want is to get them into school_..."

The rest of his summer ended up being as busy as Isa's, Roxas's, and Xion's. Between work and the whole adoption mess, which felt like a second job, Lea was now too busy to play video games, cook, shop, or go swimming, though he did carve out time to be with his family whenever they could be together.

"Are we almost adopted yet?" Xion asked, cuddling with him after dinner.

"Sort of...I guess," Lea said listlessly. "I can't believe how stupid this is...'training' me to adopt you guys, when I freaking taught Roxas how to _eat_..."

"You did?" Roxas yelped. "I don't remember that!"

"Heh, it was way at the beginning, when you were still a zombie."

"I bet I figured out how to eat on my own," Roxas pouted.

Lea patted Xion's sleeve. "This is fluffy. Where'd you get it?"

"Kaasan gave it to me," Xion said proudly. "She said she wore it when she was my age and I look as cute as a button in it."

"You do," Lea chuckled.

"Why are you doing homework during summer vacation?" Roxas asked Isa.

"I was able to enroll in time for the second summer session," Isa said shortly, eyes on his computer. "I needed to get as early a start as possible. I would be more productive at home, but _someone_ invited me here rather insistently..."

"I haven't seen you in five days. I miss you," Lea grumped.

"There was no need to drag me here when I'm simply going to be working."

"At least I get to see your ugly face while you neglect me."

"Work, work, work," Roxas grumbled. "We might as well be back in the Organization again..."

"At least we get to work for us now, and not Xemnas," Xion mused. "Or Xehanort, or whoever he was."

"Yeah."

"Hey," Lea said. "I need references to prove that I can take care of kids and that I'm not a psychopath. Help me out, Isa?"

"I'm busy."

"For crying out-! Look, Xigbar's out of the question; Xaldin, maybe; C.O. team barely knew Rox and Xi; couldn't get that lazy bum Demyx to write a grocery list, much less be a reference; Luxord, I guess; and no one else has really seen me with the kids except Mom and everyone, but I can't ask my family. Well, I could ask your mom. But that's it."

"How many do you need?"

"I dunno. Three or four?"

"Dilan, Luxord, Mother. That's three."

"Ugh, Isa..."

Isa, did, however, care about his friend more than he usually let on, which was why he was in Agrabah shortly afterwards. "Why, exactly, can't I see her?" He asked, frowning in confusion.

Aladdin shrugged. "I dunno, apparently rich people like to pretend that babies magically drop out of the sky or something and women don't have anything to do with it."

"You don't sound very convinced about the necessity of this practice...would you be willing to break the rules for me?"

"Uh...sure, I guess. If Jasmine's okay with it," the prince added more sternly.

"Of course."

"We should probably wait 'til tonight, though. I'll tell the servants to steer clear."

Jasmine did consent to see 'Kitten Eyes,' and was sitting behind a curtain when her husband led Isa in. "We're here, Jaz," Aladdin called. Rajah peered around the curtain and growled at them.

"I'll keep my distance," Isa told the tiger stiffly. "Your Highness?"

"I'm here," she said. The sound of her light, sweet voice was more refreshing than he'd expected.

"It's been a while."

"I haven't seen you since the wedding! What have you been up to?"

"Studying... I've returned to my homeworld, and am...essentially trying to reclaim my human life."

"Really?" she said warmly. "Tell me all about it, I'm curious. Aladdin, did you offer him a seat?"

"Huh?" Aladdin was already lounging on a cushion. "Oh! Um, yeah, go ahead and sit down."

"Thank you. Actually, Your Highness, the purpose of my visit tonight... Do you happen to remember my friend, L-? Er, you would have known him as 'Axel.'"

"Axel? Of course - he's the man with gaudy hair whom all the Keybearers seemed to like."

"He is quite popular with children, yes... I wanted to ask if you recalled...a certain incident last year...where you and I, er, spent some time together..."

Aladdin narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"When you saved me from being kidnapped and it took us so long to get home? Of course!"

"I suppose you got to know L- Axel fairly well... He goes by the name 'Lea' now, by the way. And I am 'Isa.'"

"Oh - I like 'Kitten' better."

"So do I," Aladdin said mischievously.

Isa gritted his teeth. "I dislike it immensely, as I'm sure you well know; and the name 'Saïx' has rather negative connotations for me..."

There was a pause. "Ohhhh," Jasmine realized. "You mean Xehanort-" Another pause. "Aladdin?"

He sat up, looking a little concerned. "Yeah?"

"What color are his-?"

"They're green," Isa snapped, unable to even look at the curtain as his cheeks colored. "My eyes are green now, Your Highness. You have nothing to fear from me."

"Isa," she said in a soft voice, "it was never you I was afraid of."

"..."

"Aladdin, is there anyone else around?"

"Nope. Just me, you, him, Rajah, and I think Abu or Genie or Carpet might be lurking around somewhere, not sure." They all listened to the silence. "On second thought," Aladdin chuckled, "not Genie. We'd have heard him by now."

There was a rustling behind the curtain. Then Jasmine stepped out.

She was halfway across the room before Isa finally realized what he was seeing. "Oh-"

She stopped before him. "It's a bit difficult for me to stoop down these days," she said delicately.

He was already scrambling to his feet. "Your High-" Face to face now, they simply gazed at each other in silence.

"I knew you'd have beautiful eyes," she finally said softly.

He blinked and turned his attention to the most convenient topic. "Have you been eating well enough? In the time I've known you, your Body Mass Index has always appeared to be alarmingly low, and you must start taking that more seriously now that you are responsible for someone else's health in addition to your own. You need plenty of protein and calcium for the child's development, such as eggs or-"

"Oh," Jasmine suddenly gasped, her attention turned inwards. "There he goes again..." She took Isa's hand, glanced at her husband until Aladdin shrugged in consent, then placed Isa's palm on her rounded belly.

_'What...?'_

"He should start kicking again in a moment," she whispered. "Or she..."

They waited. Nothing happened for a while.

"Oh- Saïx," Jasmine said, and he repressed a sigh at the name, "what do you think? We decided on Cassim if it's a boy, after Aladdin's father. But for a girl - which do you like better? Atiya, 'gift,' or Fayruz, 'turquoise gem'? Aladdin says it reminds him of me because of my wardrobe phase when we met, but I think it's silly to name a girl after something like that..."

"I think," Isa said quietly, "that in a society which values its males so highly to the detriment of its females, the daughter of such an extraordinary man as your father ought to pass on his legacy to her own children."

They both stared at him for a minute. Then Jasmine broke into a wide smile, and Aladdin laughed, "Fine, you win."

Isa jumped a little in surprise as Cassim-or-Atiya kicked at his hand. "There!" Jasmine gasped eagerly, "There she goes! You feel it, Saïx?"

"Yes," he said softly.

"I'm sorry...Isa." She cocked her head curiously. "Doesn't that mean...?"

"We don't pay as much attention to name meanings," he muttered. "My mother just saw it in a book and liked it... I was better off than my best friend, who ended up with a name that's considered feminine in every other world we've been to."

Jasmine giggled. "Axel-who's-now-called-Lea, you mean?"

"Yes. Speaking of which, I came to ask you a favor on his behalf, since you witnessed a fair amount of his interaction with the Keybearers..."

o.o.o.o.o

Shortly before school started, Lea dragged himself back to Garden High and met with the principal again, this time with Roxas and Xion in tow, hoping that their Puppy Eyes might come in handy. "Look," he said wearily, "I've been _working_ on it. All summer. But there's no way I'm going to be able to get the adoptions finalized before school starts, and I have _everything else_, unless you guys have yet more scavenger hunt clues to throw at me..."

"Axel says we can't go to school until he adopts us," Xion told the principal, "but it's taking a really long time. He has to go to class like Isa. And he's always talking to the adoption people."

"So now he's not home half the time when we get back from tutoring," Roxas complained. "We barely ever see him anymore."

"I miss Axel," Xion sighed, leaning on his shoulder. "It was a lot more fun when we got to eat ice cream on the clock tower every day, and go to the zoo and bake cookies and pick him up from work so he's not so tired when he gets home..."

"I don't even wanna go to school, anyway," Roxas said. "Kaasan teaches us everything."

"Who's your mother?" the principal asked curiously.

"My friend's mom," Lea explained. "They call my mom 'Mom,' and his mom 'Kaasan.' Because they've never had their own mom, you know?"

There was a moment of silence, as Roxas and Xion and the principal all gazed at each other. Lea hoped that whatever vibes were flowing back and forth between them would miraculously get the kids into school.

"You know," she finally said, "it seems like things are progressing rather nicely - just bring me some immunization records, and I'll go ahead and admit them _with the understanding_," her tone grew more firm in an attempt to curb their sudden excitement, "that I will be presented with the rest of the paperwork as soon as possible."

"You got it," Lea said, nearly crying in relief as Xion squeed and let Roxas high-five her. "Shot records, then we're in..."

"Also, let's go ahead and schedule a placement test now. We'll probably have to use those results in lieu of transcripts."

"Fine. Not sure what the heck that is, but great."

He wasn't nearly so happy when the results came back and it was recommended that Roxas and Xion be put in the school's special education program. "What the heck!" he raged as they were eating comfort ice cream with Isa afterwards, "They're not friggin' stupid! They're clueless but they're not _retarded_, I don't know who the freak she thinks she is, saying they're 'special' as if she thinks her stupid school's too good for-"

"Lea, stop it," Isa said sharply.

Roxas and Xion were staring at Lea, wide-eyed.

"Axel," Xion said in a small voice, "I thought it was good to be special..."

"I thought we were _always_ special," Roxas said in confusion, absently flipping the Keychain clipped to his belt.

"Not 'special' like Keyblade-wielders, 'special' like-"

"Lea, shut up," Isa said.

"Don't tell me to shut up! They're not putting _my_ kids in special ed, forget it, they're not going anywhere near that school, I'm taking them-"

Isa stood up. "Lea Hayes, you have no idea what you're talking about, _shut up_."

"What're you-?!"

"Shut UP. What do you think the program is _for_? A school has a duty to give every single one of its students the best education possible, regardless of any disadvantages certain students might have."

"They-"

"Have you ever actually met anyone who suffers from mental retardation? Because they exist. They existed back when _we_ went to that school. Did you think they were just locked in a closet somewhere all day? Or did you ever even think about them at all?"

Lea stared at him.

"Special needs are simply special needs, there is no shame in having them. And even the most intelligent teenagers in the world would not be able to succeed in high school without help when they've had less than two years of life experience, no formal education, and learned everything they know from a high school dropout, a Moogle who routinely swindled them, and a housewife."

"Isa..."

"I can assure you," Isa continued more quietly, sitting back down, "if you fling your precious Keybearers into general education, they will be completely lost, will fail most of their classes, and would probably be better off not even going to school at all. Special education will help them _catch up_, and _graduate_. Which is, may I remind you, the whole point of enrolling them."

Lea was still staring. "Where the heck did all that come from?"

Isa sighed. "As a freshman, my academic performance was such that they allowed me to tutor in the junior high school's Content Mastery Center during my sophomore year. Before the Garden fell, obviously."

"You tutored in the what?"

"See, you've never even heard of it. You were all so oblivious." Isa shook his head. "I mostly tutored students with learning disabilities who'd come in with assignments, but near the end, they started asking me to help in...other classrooms. It was eye-opening. It was..." Isa eyed the curious Keybearers, then continued in a lower voice, "It was what made me decide to become a teacher."

There was a long pause.

"Oh," Lea finally said.

Roxas tossed his ice cream stick at the trash can and made a little victorious noise when it made it in. "So, what. Are we going to school in September, or are you still mad?"

Lea let his head drop back against the wall. "I don't knooowwww... Fine, yeah. You're going to school. Special ed. Whatever. I hope you know what you're talking about, Isa."

Isa touched the two class schedules in front of them. "Language arts, history, and science in regular classrooms, the rest of the day in CMC - they will catch up quickly." He narrowed his eyes at Roxas and Xion. "_If_ they are diligent and work hard."

"It'll be like missions," Xion said. "Just without the Heartless."

Both Lea and Isa smiled a little.

"Heh..."

"That is one way to think of it, I suppose."

On the morning of the first day of school, Roxas and Xion were fussed over by Lea, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Tsukino, and both of Lea's sisters.

"Stick with the people you know, okay?" Lea said, slinging his arms around his siblings. "If you don't have any friends, you're sunk."

"Don't tell them that," Mrs. Hayes admonished, cuddling her almost-grandchildren. "You two will be just fine, and all of us here love you very much."

"I can't breathe," Roxas said, wriggling in her arms.

Mrs. Tsukino kissed him as soon as he got free. "Don't let what anyone says bother you, all right? You both have such lovely smiles, don't forget to use them!"

"Are you kidding? All the girls'll take one look at Roxy and start swooning," one of Lea's sisters laughed.

"Don't squish my hair!"

"You have your lunch, Xion?"

"Yup."

"Notebooks, plenty of pencils, schedule-?"

"Don't people get in trouble when they're late to school?" Roxas said pointedly.

Lea stood with his and Isa's mothers as they all watched the kids leave. His arms were folded, and he kept clenching his hands. He finally realized that both women seemed to be watching him, waiting for something. "What?" he said defensively.

"Your little babies are all grown up," Mrs. Hayes prompted.

"Mom," Lea mumbled, though that had been the exact sentiment he'd been trying to suppress.

"They're soooo cute," Mrs. Tsukino sighed, "and now they're off to school, just like all the rest of the cuties their age...off to school for the very first time..."

"Aaahhhh!" Lea yelled, giving in, "My babies! My life is _so screwed up_!" He burst into laughter.

When both adoptions were finalized, they threw a party to celebrate. Isa _didn't study_ during some of it, and Roxas and Xion had some actual friends from school that they were able to invite. There was a cake and games and food, and near the end, as people were starting to offer final congratulations and return home, Xion leaned into Lea and smiled when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "We're finally a family now?"

"Finally a family," he confirmed, kissing her forehead.

Roxas crossed his arms on Lea's other shoulder, looking through the open door into the living room where Isa was arguing comfortably with Riku and Mr. Hayes, Lea's sisters and Kairi were trying to coax Mr. Tsukino to dance as Naminé appeared to be sketching the scene, Lea's brother and Sora were sprinkling confetti into the laughing Mrs. Tsukino's hair, and Mrs. Hayes was happily showing a photo album to Ven and Sapphique. "I thought we were already a family."

Lea hugged him, too. "You're right, Rox. We've been a family for a long time." He smiled. "Now we're a family in our hearts _and_ on paper."

"It took longer than I thought it would..."

"Yes," Lea said in deadpan understatement. "Yes, it did."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: While I was playing with another plot bunny in this universe related to Rox & Xi's schooling, it occurred to me to wonder how they got enrolled in the school in the first place. Once the idea sparked in my mind, it just kept unspooling like that wish list Genie pulls out of Aladdin's ear during "Friend Like Me." XD Because seriously, Roxas's & Xion's insane backgrounds would make it ridiculously hard to get them into a school like the ones in my country. ^^; I have _so_ much fun putting science-fantasy characters into mundane situations... X3

Most of this story was planned; some of it wasn't. I didn't realize that _Before Sora_ was going to get referenced so much, and the Xi(Ven)Van and SaiJazAl and spec ed stuff either flowed in as I was drafting, or jumped into the outline when I wasn't drafting. ^^;

**"Kaasan" (short for "Okaasan") means "Mom" in Japanese.**

Ftr, I plan to eventually make another version of _First Blood_ where Axel doesn't chicken out. XD

I haven't actually written out the "certain incident" yet about SaiJaz, though it's teased in _Eyes Like A Tiger's: Within Music_. ELAT was not supposed to be part of the BbF&ML universe, but...yeah. No control over my muse WHATSOEVER. -.-

Speaking of my muse, I wrote this story in, like, a week. XD I've been _flooded_ with AkuSaiRokuShi inspiration lately, and unless my capricious muse gets interested in another shiny distraction soon, you'll be seeing a lot more OT4 stuff from me in the near future. *sweatdrop*

"Isa" is a male name in Arabic (it's the Arabic form of "Jesus" XD XD *sweatdrop*), and apparently it can be Sanskrit, too? But "Lea"...could not find anything except female meanings. XD


	9. A Gift For My Mom

A Gift For My Mom  
(rough draft)  
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

_For Mother's Day, 12 May 2013_

Summary: Roxas made a gift, now he just needs someone to give it to.

**A/N: I am on hiatus; this is just a post-and-run.**

Takes place in the same universe as _Fire & Moonlight: Button_.

o.o.o

"Pleeeeaaase, can I have purple?" Xion begged.

Her teacher sighed but then agreed, pushing back the red paint and reaching for the purple paint instead.

"Yay!"

"Here you go, Xion dear," Ms. Taft said, painting Xion's hand and then pressing it onto the paper to create flower shapes.

"This will make Mommy smile," Xion said, looking happily at her picture.

"All right, go take it over to the shelf to dry, okay, sweetie?"

"Okay!" Xion went to obey. She was supposed to go find a center to work at after that, but she couldn't help just standing there and looking some more. Her paint-flowers were so pretty, she really hoped her mommy would like them. Mommy wasn't happy very much.

Roxas came over and flopped his picture next to hers. "There."

"I like your picture, Roxas!"

"I got paint all over my hand." They both looked at it.

"You washed it."

"I can still feel it." Roxas shook his hand in distaste.

"Your mommy will like your pretty picture, Roxas."

"I don't have a mommy."

"You don't?"

"Nope. It's just me and Dad."

"Oh... Who are you gonna give your Mother's Day present to, then?"

"Uh - I dunno." Roxas thought about this. Finally he looked upset. "I don't have anyone to give it to. I'm gonna throw it away." He reached to crumple his picture.

"No, Roxas, don't throw it away!"

"Xion," their teacher called, "inside voice, please."

"Roxas is gonna throw his picture away!"

"What?"

"I don't have a mom!" Roxas yelled. "Mother's Day is stupid!"

"Ohhh, honey- Samantha, dear, put your hand on the paper to make the flowers, okay? Good! Now go wash your hands, I have to talk to Roxas for a minute." Ms. Taft got up and came over to Roxas, who had sat down on the floor and put his hands over his ears in a sulking pose. "Roxas, sweetie. I'm sure there are lots of people you can give your flowers too - don't you have a grandmother or an aunt? Someone who loves you and takes care of you, who's there when you need her? Someone who can cook yummy food for you when you're hungry, or play fun games with you, or hug you when you're sad?"

"Hmmm...yeah," Roxas finally said.

"There, you see? A lot of people don't have their mothers around anymore, but they can still celebrate Mother's Day with someone who's _like_ a mother to them."

"Yeah." Roxas stood up again so he could look at his picture. "I know who I'm going to give it to."

"Wonderful! Now why don't we let it sit here and have a chance to dry. Run along to the sight words center, all right?"

"Okay. Come on, Roxas!" Xion said, tugging at him.

"Okay. I'm gonna find more words than you."

"No, you're not! I'm better at this game."

"No, I am."

"I am!"

"I am...!"

o.o.o.o.o

When Axel arrived at the daycare to pick up Roxas, he was surprised to see Saïx sitting in the large room where the children played, looking hilariously out of place. Saïx was reading a book to Xion, who looked captivated, and to Roxas, who looked bored.

"Oi, Rox-my-socks!"

"Dad!" Roxas leaped up and ran to greet him as usual.

"Heeeeyyy, kiddo, you have a good day today?"

"Mm hm. I want ice cream."

"You always want ice cream."

"Ice cream is good."

"Not right before dinner." Axel looked down and smiled to see Xion poised nearby, watching him expectantly. "Heeeeyyy, pretty girl!"

"Axel Dad!" she squealed, hugging his leg.

He laughed and crouched down to put an arm around her. "Good to see you, too, princess."

"Daddy's been waiting for you."

"Yeah, I noticed." Axel stood back up again, holding Xion's hand, and arched an eyebrow inquiringly at Saïx.

"Let's talk somewhere...quieter," Saïx mumbled.

"Sure."

When they were outside, Roxas and Xion started playing hopscotch on the sidewalk, and Axel leaned against the wall and waited. And waited. Saïx just stood there, not meeting his eyes and looking unhappy.

"Sai, I know it's crazy, but I kinda have other things I need to do tonight other than stand around waiting for you to say something."

Saïx sighed. "I need...a favor from you."

"What is it?"

"...I would really appreciate it if you could watch Xion this Sunday. Just for a few hours."

"Flaming pants, and here I thought it was gonna be a big deal."

Saïx eyed him, as if trying to figure out whether he was joking or not.

"Sai, Xion is practically like my daughter, I'd be _happy_ to get her out of your hair this Sunday."

"It's not like that," Saïx snapped. "I'm not trying to get rid of her. I simply have another obligation to fulfill that day, and I can't take Xion with me."

Axel paused. Then guessed what his friend meant. "Ohhhh." His mouth quirked in sympathy. "It's really so bad that Xi can't even see her on Mother's Day?"

"It's...not dangerous anymore...probably...but - Xion gets so upset afterward," Saïx said in a low voice. "Kay barely even acknowledges her, she's grown so cold and distant, and sometimes so cruel... I don't understand how that woman can possibly be the same one I married."

"I...don't know what to say," Axel said awkwardly. "I was only married for two weeks, I'm not exactly an expert..."

"Just take care of Xion for me, that's all I ask. I can handle it alone if I don't have to worry about her."

Axel studied him for a little while. "Why don't you hang out with us when you come back? We can have a barbecue or something, whatever; I'll invite some people over."

"No, that's all right. Thank you."

"Come ooonnnn, Sai. You know Xi's just gonna whine if you drag her away too early."

"...Hmph. Very well, then."

o.o.o.o.o

"I love you, Daddy," Xion said on Sunday afternoon, kissing his nose.

"I love you, too. Be good," Saïx added sternly.

"I will~! Daddy, do you have my present for Mommy?"

"Yes. I will give it to her."

"Do you think she'll like it?"

"...Yes."

"Are you lying, Daddy?"

Axel tried to stifle a snort of laughter, then felt bad for thinking it was funny.

"Any mother would love to receive a handmade gift from her child," Saïx said, a little stiffly.

"What'd you make, Xion?" Axel asked.

Xion made Saïx take out the picture of the handprint flowers to show him.

"OH," Roxas remembered, "I have a present, too. I forgot."

"You forgot?!" Xion shrieked.

"You made a present for Xion's mom?" Axel said in surprise.

"No," Roxas said impatiently, "She's not my mom. It's in my backpack."

"Let's go get it!" The kids ran to Roxas's room.

"That's cute," Axel chuckled, handing the picture back to Saïx. "They did it at school?"

"Yes. Thank you again, Axel."

"No problem, bro. Seriously, _no problem_, we love having Xi over."

"I appreciate it."

"See you later, all right?"

"Yes."

After Saïx had left, Axel went to find the kids. Roxas pushed him until he sat down, and Xion bounced around him in excitement. "Roxas made you something, Axel Dad!"

"Me?" Axel said in surprise.

"Yeah." Roxas put his handprint flower picture on Axel's lap. "That's for you. I made it."

"For _me_? Roxas, I'm a guy!"

"But I don't have a mom."

"Huh?"

Roxas sighed. "I don't have a mom, so I didn't have anyone to give my picture to for Mother's Day, but then my teacher said give it to someone who cooks and plays with me, and that's you. Happy Mother's Day, Dad." He put his arms around Axel's neck.

Axel hugged him back, laughing helplessly. "I guess I am your mom, huh..."

"Happy Mother's Day, Axel Mom," Xion said mischievously, hugging him too.

"Heh. Happy Mother's Day, you little munchkins."

"Do you like your picture?" Roxas asked.

"It's beautiful, Rox," Axel said, making a show of admiring it.

"Hang it on the refrigerator."

"Okay," Axel laughed. "Help me up."

The kids enthusiastically hauled him to his feet, and followed Axel as he went to go put his Mother's Day gift on display.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: They've known each other for almost a year; AkuSai are surely comfortable enough by now to have no qualms about dumping their kids on each other (at least, Axel doesn't mind; Saïx isn't exactly thrilled at the idea of having to look after Roxas XD); and Xion might know by now that Roxas has lost contact with his mom, but whatever.

Hmm, I dunno if anyone's squicked out by the idea of Saïx/Kay or not... There's some cases where I'm not bothered by turning parent/child relationships into husband/wife ones when it's an alternate universe. *sweatdrop*

Ftr, Roxas _is_ Axel's biological son in this universe. And don't ask who his mom is, because I have no clue; my Axel likes to mess around with the ladies, but is at heart a perpetual single dad. ^^;;; I don't like pairing him up with anyone for real...

LOL, I get such a kick out of the idea of Axel being Rox & Xi's mommy. XD I was trying to think of plot bunnies for this concept, but it didn't work in a present-canon setting because I've already seen that done before and didn't have any fresh ideas; and in _Stepsiblings_ or _The Light In Their Eyes_ or even BbF&ML, because the kids do have mother figures in those universes. (But then I thought of a BbF&ML plunny after all. ^^; I don't know yet whether I'll be able to write/post it tonight, though.)

Anyway. So "Button" was the first 'verse where Rox didn't really have any female figure he could give a Mom's Day gift to, leaving him free to harass Axel for me once again. :p


	10. As Long As I'm Living

As Long As I'm Living

(rough draft)

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

_Inspired by Infamousplot_

Summary: All children strikeexcept one/strike grow up - but that doesn't mean they're no longer your children

o.o.o

Aqua, unable to hug and fuss over Ven anymore because Terra had finally gotten impatient at having to wait his turn, sighed and looked around for something else to do.

She very quickly spotted the two figures slumped further down the beach: Roxas and Xion sitting together on the sand, she leaning against his shoulder, and both of them looking depressed. "Ohhhh..." It annoyed her a little to realize that Zack's teasing about her 'mommy instincts' apparently hadn't just been teasing, but it wasn't as if she could just turn her back and pretend she hadn't seen. She gave a wry smile and started heading toward the two teenagers in need of cheering up.

Sora got there first, racing over and prompting them to surge away in disgust, Roxas yelling at him about being a clumsy idiot getting sand in their eyes.

"Sorry! Sorry! You guys just looked kind of glum, so I thought-"

"We're _fine_."

"You don't look fine," Sora said unhappily, glancing at Xion, who was rubbing at her eyes and seemed to have been doing so before getting sand sprayed in her face.

"We're okay, Sora," she said in a subdued voice.

Aqua came to a stop beside Sora and crouched down so that she was more level with the other two. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice softening as she gazed at Roxas, who had the same face as her own precious one.

"Nothing," Roxas grumbled sullenly.

"If nothing was wrong, you guys'd be laughing and talking to Axel, wouldn't you?" Sora insisted. He pointed dramatically at some of the others farther away. "Like Terra and Ven, you can practically hear what they're talking about from here; and the Princesses of Heart are being all girly and I can't even get to Kairi; and Riku's about to get in a fight with Xigbar, or Braig or whatever his name is- I thought you guys were Axel's best friends."

"We thought we were, too!" Xion burst out, then buried her face in Roxas's shoulder before she could cry again.

"But not anymore, I guess," Roxas said sourly. "He just takes one look at us and marches off to go hang out with _Saix_." He lowered his chin back to rest on the crossed arms he'd propped on his knee. "Liar...said he'd never had a best friend before us...flaming liar, he _did_ have one, and he likes him better than us now that we're all human..."

Aqua looked over at the two figures even farther off, sitting on a fallen paopu tree, red and blue hair standing out vividly against the foliage. Roxas stood up and yelled in their direction, "Fine! Be _his_ best friend now, I don't care, I've still got Xion, you loser!"

"I miss Axel," Xion said sadly.

Aqua looked at Sora. "Cheer them up," she ordered, then started marching over to the former Numbers VII and VIII without waiting to see Sora's enthusiastic salute.

o.o.o.o.o

Isa had thought he would be one of the ones without a Joyous Reunion, and he did not, as Braig had, care to butt in on other people's for the sake of attention. So he'd procured an ice cream bar, found a shaded place to sit, and prepared to wait it out until everyone was ready to be useful again (Xehanort, after all, was not quite dead yet, and they needed to make plans).

So he was very surprised when someone came crunching across the sand to plop down on the tree trunk next to him. The surprise itself was rather overwhelming, and took a while to process; but when Isa was finally capable of speaking again, he said, "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding," Lea mumbled. Either he'd matured enough over the years to be able to confess something like that, or he felt comfortable enough with Isa again to be able to show weakness in front of him. Either way, Isa was rather touched.

"From _whom_? Aren't they all your best friends now?"

"Just two of them," Lea said sulkily, "and yes, but so are you."

"...I don't think that's why you came to sit with me." _'Because even if getting your heart back has awakened your sense of obligation, it's still clear that they are what's most important to you now.'_

"It's not," Lea wailed, and buried his face in his arms.

Isa sighed. _'Stop it,'_ he told himself. _'I know it's harder to deal with when you have your wretched heart back, but you've already _known_ for quite a long time that he doesn't care about you anymore, so put it aside and give him what he needs.'_ So he could go back to the Keybearers and leave Isa behind again. That was all right. He and Lea had stopped being friends a long time ago. Isa, deceiving Saix, had even pushed Axel away deliberately in order to protect him. It didn't matter if Isa was still alive when he expected to be dead by now; he still had to accept the consequences of what he'd sacrificed. "Then I suggest you simply _tell_ me what your problem is, since I'm not going to waste time and energy trying to wheedle it out of you." He took another bite of ice cream.

"Man, Isa, you're no fun for pouting people."

"Was I ever?"

"Heh, no." Lea expelled a dramatic sigh. "Just _look_ at them!"

"Thirteen and Fourteen?"

"Call them by their names, Isa."

_'I don't want to.'_ "...Lea's Pet Number 1 and Lea's Pet Number 2."

"They're not _pets_, they're- Gah!"

"Just spit it out, Lea."

Lea _pointed_ in a highly exaggerated manner. "They are HUGE!"

Isa paused in confusion. "Pardon?"

"_Look_ at them!"

Isa looked. "I suppose they're a bit taller than they were in the Organization..."

"They greeeewwww!"

"Young people grow," Isa said in exasperation. "_Why_ is this a problem for you?"

"Because...because..."

"Lea, they're, what, seventeen now? Or at least, the Keybearer they were replicated from is. They're virtually adults. Were you expecting them to stay small and stupid forever?"

"They're not as cute..."

A childish hope rose in Isa's heart, which he instantly crushed. "So you don't care about them anymore because they're no longer childishly appealing?"

"No! Duh! They're _Roxas and Xion_, I'll _always_ love them. I just..." Lea suddenly went quiet for what felt like a very long time. Then, gazing at the two rather forlorn-looking figures on the beach, he finally said softly, "Is this what parents feel like, when they watch their children grow up...?"

"..." _'He's been with them from the beginning. Taught them everything they know. Watched them develop from naive, ignorant newborns to competent warriors... I suppose it _does_ make sense they'd feel like the younger siblings he lost, like the children he's never had.'_ "Lea."

"They're not gonna be bugging me with ridiculous adorable questions anymore," Lea lamented. "They're gonna be real teenagers and start asking me to drop them off five blocks away from their dates because they'd rather walk all that way than pretend they know me..."

"For goodness' sake, Lea, this isn't a movie and they're...not brats." Isa was a little surprised to find that he meant it. "You said yourself you'll always love them," he continued quietly. "Even after they've grown up."

He remembered something his own mother had told him several times when he was young, something he was afraid to put to the test, but which he would have to eventually, when the war was over.

"...It doesn't matter how old they get, or how much they mature...your children will always be your children. They will always be precious to you." _'Even if they became criminals, Mother? Even if they were foolish, and let evil into their heart, and were used as a tool to bring about great destruction, of both your own home and many others? Even if that child was the very reason you and the rest of those people wandered grieving through the darkness for so long? How could anyone possibly forgive someone like that, even if he is your own son?'_

"Urk - I think we're in trouble."

Isa saw Aqua heading purposefully over to them. "Yes, I think you're right."

"Thanks, Isa!" Lea jumped off the tree and starting jogging down the beach, thrusting a fresh ice cream bar out to Aqua as he passed her and saying brightly, "Here, have some sea-salt!"

Startled, she automatically accepted the treat, then watched with narrowed eyes as he continued on. In the distance, they could see Roxas and Xion quickly straightening up to meet Lea, Lea talking to them, Roxas yelling at him, Xion suddenly hugging him, all three of them hugging, laughing, talking, then a playful fight, then Isa couldn't watch anymore and he turned away to finish his ice cream.

"...They misunderstood, didn't they," Aqua finally said.

"Lea is an idiot."

Aqua paused, then gracefully hoisted herself up to sit next to Isa. "You talked to him, didn't you."

"I simply told him what he wanted to hear," Isa sulked.

Aqua studied him for a while. "You still care about him very much."

"One does tend to retain some attachment to the only friend he's ever had."

"...You know, Isa...Lea isn't the type to abandon someone just because he's made some new friends."

"If I happened to _like_ his new friends, at _all_, it wouldn't be a problem."

"So you're really going to force him to choose between you?"

"He's already made his choice." Isa wasn't expecting Aqua to suddenly smack the back of his head. "_Ow_!" She was strong. It hurt.

"Get over there, Isa."

"Why?" he said indignantly, still cradling the back of his head. "Those two brats have no love for me, nor should they, after everything they had to deal with in that Organization."

"Isa-"

"And I have no desire to befriend them, either."

"Isa, you are part of this team, and as your ally, I'm not going to let you just give up like a coward."

Isa slid to his feet, eyes flashing.

"You want a fight? I can give you one, but you'd still just be avoiding what you're actually afraid of. _Get over there_. Before I tell Braig that you're frightened of a couple of teenagers with ice cream addictions."

"You're manipulating me."

"Is it working?"

Isa glared and sulkily trudged off in the direction of the trio.

Aqua smiled as she watched him go, then headed off to see if she could shove Terra aside just enough for the two of them to be able to share Ven.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Infamousplot has a knack for inspiring my muse. XD I think it's because we both totally ship parentalAxel/RokuShi. While squeeing to some of our friends about KH3, she said, "It's funny because they haven't even shown or mentioned ianything to do with Axel, Roxas, or Xion, and I'm getting AkuRokuShi feels imagining Axel finally finding them and them getting saved ;-; They're probably like, 17 now? What if they got taller ;A; And Axel's little babies aren't babies any more and he finally sees them after two years and he's like "Look at you you're so tall and grown up" ;A; ;A; :a; *tears*"

XD (Ftr, I don't think it's been THAT long since KH2, **I'd argue that Rox & Xi will still be about 15**, unless we get canon confirmation otherwise. But I couldn't say no to the cute AkuRokuShi scenes that started playing in my head when I saw what Ip said. ^^)

And OF COURSE Isa's in there. Of course he is! My OTP/4 doesn't work without him! XD But tell me if my "trying to make AkuSaiRokuShi work post-canon" scenarios start to get repetitive, okay...? They all kind of follow the same format. ;;

**The title of this fic references a lovely book called **_**Love You Forever**_** by Robert Munsch & Sheila McGraw. :')**

Btw, I'm not on hiatus anymore~! (I made a life/writing update entry on LiveJournal.) But my life still hasn't settled down yet, so I'll still be bad at answering messages for a while, sorry. ^^;


	11. BbF&ML: Miss a Day

_**BbF&ML: Miss a Day**_** [censored version] (rough draft)**

**A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

Summary: Xion gets sick, and neither Lea nor Isa can stay home to take care of her...

A/N: Ftr, here's the layout of the house: most of it is taken up by the kitchen and living area, which are like two halves of the main space. Off to the side is a vague t shape with the bathroom in the middle. The bedroom is on one side of it, which Lea and Isa share (Lea claimed the top bunk); on the other side is a tiny room which was meant to be a study or something, but the kids use it as their room to keep their stuff in. Only Xion sleeps there, though; Roxas sleeps in a loft over the living room.

Also, AkuSaiRokuShi don't have a car. I made a mistake in "Vacation Notice." *sweatdrop*

Btw, Americans, I used Celsius instead of Fahrenheit because not only does everyone else use the metric system and I consider the KH characters to be half-Japanese, but metric also makes more sense. XD 40°C is about 104°F.

o.o.o

"Xion," Lea called, knocking on her door for the fifth time and starting to sound impatient, "I'm about to barge in and _drag_ you out of bed. You're gonna be late for school."

She didn't deign to respond this time.

"Xion-"

"Hey..."

Lea turned to find Roxas standing behind him, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and still damp from a shower. His hair looked hilarious.

"I need my clothes."

"Don't say I didn't warn you!" Lea yelled at the door, then presented it to Roxas like an usher.

Roxas edged the door ajar, then pushed it all the way open when he wasn't yelled at. "Xion?" It was dark, and he snapped the light on. "Xion?"

She moaned in response and sluggishly rolled over in bed, turning away from the light.

"I need my clothes."

"Mmnh..."

Shrugging, Roxas went to dig his school uniform out of the closet, taking it back to the bathroom to get dressed. After a while, Xion made a feeble gesture, and the light bulb went dark again.

A little later, Isa marched in, flicking the light switch as he did so. When nothing happened, he frowned at the light bulb, then shook his head and took hold of Xion's shoulders, briskly trying to rouse her. "Get up. I don't care how late you went to bed, you are _not_ missing school for some capricious-" He abruptly went silent, feeling at her face and forehead. "_Lea_."

Lea was in the doorway almost instantly. "What?" he asked in alarm.

"Get the thermometer."

"Is she sick?!"

"I will use the _thermometer_ to decisively determine this."

"Xion!" Lea darted to feel her forehead and fuss over her. Isa rolled his eyes and went to get the thermometer himself.

Roxas, after being called over and restoring the light bulb's functionality, leaned on the doorframe and watched the proceedings with mild interest as he finished eating the last sausage.

"She has a fever," Isa confirmed. "It would be best if she remained home from school."

"Xioooon!" Lea cuddled her in distress. She lay completely limp and unresponsive in his arms.

"Will you stay home to care for her?"

Lea stilled, staring at Isa. "Uh...me?"

"Of course you," Isa snapped. "I can't possibly miss class, I've got two exams today and a group project to work on."

"But...I can't miss work, either." Lea hugged her tighter. "Rent's due at the end of the month, I don't know if we'll be able to cover it even if I _don't_ lose any hours..."

Roxas made a mental note to pay for the next grocery shopping trip, and tried to think of how to do so without Lea or Isa finding out. They were starting to catch on that Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Tsukino weren't regularly 'sending over extra food.'

"I don't feel good," Xion whimpered against Lea's chest.

He stroked her hair and said to Isa, "Okay, here's the plan: you and me'll starve for the next two weeks, and Rox and Xi can eat at Mom's house. That way, I can miss work and still have enough munny for rent."

"You're so dramatic," Isa grumbled. He looked at Roxas.

Lea shot a pleading glance at Isa, noticed where his attention was, then looked at Roxas, too. Roxas fiddled with the grease-stained napkin in his hands and looked back at them, wondering why they were staring.

"Hey, Roxas," Lea said.

"Yeah?"

"This will surely end well," Isa muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"You're a big boy, you can take care of a sick person, right?"

"Huh?"

"It's easy. You just wait on her hand and foot all day."

"I'm supposed to wait for her foot?" Roxas said dubiously.

Isa straightened and said sternly, "You're a young adult who should have developed a healthy sense of responsibility by now, after helping to save the multiverse from a megalomaniac."

"Mega-_what_?"

"Therefore, I expect you to be diligent and attentive. This is not a vacation day."

"Could either of you kind of let me in the loop here?"

"You can stay home from school and take care of Xion, right?" Lea said eagerly.

Roxas considered this. "Yeah, I guess so." He went to change back out of his uniform into something more comfortable.

o.o.o.o.o

Lea and Isa were annoying - he wished they'd just shut up and leave.

"Check on her at least once every hour, okay?"

"Make sure she gets plenty of fluids, and get a fresh container periodically; she shouldn't be drinking out of the same bottle all day. There's juice in the refrigerator, and canned soup in the pantry."

"Make sure she's got plenty of blankets and a cold cloth for her forehead, okay?"

"Read the medicine labels _carefully_, and take note of the time whenever you give her a dose. Do _not_ overdose her and do _not_ give her anything you are unsure of."

"Call me or Sai if- I mean, Isa, _whatever_ his name is-"

"Really, Lea...?"

"-call us if anything bad happens, okay? _Call us_."

"Only if it's an emergency, such as if her temperature rises above forty degrees or she stops breathing, or-"

"Don't tell him to wait to call us 'til she's _dying_, are you crazy?!"

"She's not _dying_, and we're _busy_, he's perfectly capable of handling-"

"Maybe I should stay home after all!"

"Just go AWAY!" Roxas yelled, shoving them both out the door. "I won't let Xion die. Okay? Go to work and school."

"Call us if-" Isa started.

"You sure you've got-?" Lea added.

"I didn't let _you_ guys die," Roxas reminded them.

There was a pause. Then, to his surprise, Lea hugged him. "We promised we'd always be together."

"Yeah," Roxas said, hugging him back.

"...Flaming pants, you've gotten tall."

"Oh." Roxas looked up and found that Isa was gazing straight into his eyes.

"We trust you," Isa said quietly.

"Yeah. We all trust each other, right?" Just when Roxas was starting to wonder if he was supposed to hug Isa, too, Isa nodded and Lea clapped his shoulder and they both turned away.

"We are so late," Lea remarked as they walked off together.

"At least it's Tuesday. I would have missed a quiz if Xion had decided to fall ill a day earlier..."

"Good thing she was nice enough to get sick at a more convenient time for Your Royal Saixness."

Roxas rolled his eyes at their retreating figures and shut the door.

He watched TV for a while, then figured he'd better check on Xion. She was sleeping. He watched some more TV, but then he got bored. He sighed and turned the TV off, and listened to how quiet the house now was. "I'm hungry..."

Eating alone, he wistfully thought that he wished she was eating with him. He finally went into her room, and she looked kind of dead. "Xion?" He turned on the light. She lay perfectly still with her eyes closed, her face nearly chalk white, sweat beaded on her forehead and her hair tangled in damp strands against the pillow. The room kind of smelled a little. "You don't look too good..."

He started to put a hand on her forehead, and gasped at how hot her skin was. "Flaming pants-" Now he was struggling to remember all that stuff Lea and Isa had been telling him. "Blankets...?" She needed something cold for her forehead. Or, medicine...a thermometer...?

After realizing that he'd been standing here not actually doing anything for too long, Roxas dug for his phone.

_Don't call us unless it's an emergency._

Was this an emergency?

_Call us if she's not breathing._

"Sacred-" Roxas patted helplessly at her. Finally, his face practically touching hers, he figured out that she was breathing. "Okay...breathing..." He looked around. "What do I do first?" She looked uncomfortable, so he finally started wiping the sweat off her forehead, and fluffing her hair so it wasn't all stuck to her skin. She whimpered a little. "Xion, are you okay?"

The word slipped out of her mouth like a sigh. "'Lixir..."

"Uh...we don't...have any...anymore...remember...?" It didn't look like she heard him. "Oh, man." He looked around desperately and saw a bottle of medicine on the bedside table. "Ah!" He dove for it.

...The words were _tiny_, and there were a whole bunch of them.

_Read _all_ the directions _carefully_._

"Whatever, Saïx." He shook two pills out into his hand, because that was how many Lea had given her that morning. "Okay, you have to eat these, Xion." She didn't move or even open her eyes, so he finally slipped them into her mouth. She didn't chew. Then, just as he was wondering if he was supposed to move her teeth up and down, she made a strangled sound, spit out the pills, then threw up on him.

Roxas stared down at the vomit, feeling like he was gonna throw up, too. "...Help."

o.o.o.o.o

Lea's phone buzzed in his pocket, and he instantly dove into hiding as soon as he saw that the call was from Roxas. "What happened?"

_"Xion threw up on me."_

Lea tried not to laugh. "She must be feeling pretty bad."

_"She wouldn't eat the pills."_

"Eat the-? Roxas, those kind of pills, you have to swallow them whole. You can't chew them."

_"...Oh."_

"You'll have to get her to sit up and drink some water - if the pills are in her mouth at the same time as the water, she'll swallow them both together."

_"Oh."_

"It's probably easier if you do one pill at a time."

_"Okay. She threw up on me."_

"Poor Roxy." After talking him through most of the cleanup, Lea was discovered and had to hang up. "I hope they're doing okay..."

o.o.o.o.o

Pushing and pulling Xion around was kind of like playing with a huge, hot doll. Worried, Roxas worked hard until everything was clean and she'd eaten- _swallowed_ some pills and she was sitting up more and covered with blankets and had a cloth on her forehead to try to make her not so hot, and now he was trying to get her to eat. "Come on, Xion. I was hungry, so you should be hungry, too. Eat the sandwich, it's good."

She turned her head away from the smell of peanut butter and whimpered.

"..."

_Plenty of fluids._

"Um...I'll get you some juice, then, okay?"

He finally didn't know what to do anymore. He lay down beside her and looked at her for a while, feeling her misery in his heart. Then he got bored and wanted to play video games. But he was afraid to leave her alone now, so he carried her into the living room and settled her on the couch, and gave her some more pills because she looked dead again. Then he sat down on the floor and turned on the TV.

After a while, he heard her say in a gravelly voice, "Roxas?"

He paused the game and turned around and propped his arms on the couch. "Are you feeling better?"

Her eyes were open, and she'd kicked off the blankets. "I'm so hungry...do we have any crackers?"

"Crackers? I guess so." He went to look, and saw a cluster of soup cans on the shelf above them. "Oh yeah! Isa said there's soup." He put it in a pot on the stove to warm up.

When it was ready, he poured some into a bowl and brought it to Xion, who smiled wanly. "Thanks..." She only ate a few bites, though. "I'm tired," she murmured. Shivering, she put the bowl down and pulled all the blankets around her again, huddling under them as if she was freezing.

"You didn't eat very much..."

"I'm tired."

"...But you're still hungry?" She didn't answer. He found that she'd eat it if he put the spoonfuls into her mouth for her, so he fed her bit by bit until she whimpered and wouldn't open her mouth. "It's almost finished, anyway." He took the bowl back to the sink, fed her more pills, and went back to his game.

o.o.o.o.o

Most professors either ignored it when cell phones went off in their classes, or just made a brief, annoyed remark and kept going. Professor Higgins, however, notoriously strict, did not put up with it at _all_. His syllabus made it clear that anyone who missed more than two days of class would be dropped from the roster, and that texting during class, or leaving to answer a phone call, or being caught on unrelated Web sites during lectures, counted as 'absences.' He was known to follow through. This was why Isa had been very careful, since he could not afford to take risks. Being dropped from a class after the late registration deadline was simply not an option.

"My, my, my, Mr. Tsukino."

Isa closed his eyes in dismay and tightened his grip on the phone. He usually silenced it during class, but had left it on vibrate mode today, because of Xion's condition. Of _course_ Roxas would choose this time to text him about something trivial.

"You are now absent today, Tsukino."

"Sir, my younger sister is ill and her teenage brother is the only one watching her, I needed-"

"_Excuses_, Tsukino?"

"...No, sir," Isa said stiffly, flashbacking unpleasantly to all the times he'd had to grovel to Xemnas. "I apologize."

"Very well. Then, since you were paying _so_ close attention, perhaps you could summarize for us the significance of Lamar's 1912 discovery, which I just finished expounding."

_'...If you knew what I have done in the past and what I'm still capable of, you would not be lording it over me so carelessly.'_ No. He cut off that line of thinking immediately, as always. He knew it could never lead him anywhere good. "Well, sir, from what I understand..."

Halfway through the period, it happened. _Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt._ Not a text message this time. To his horror, Isa accidentally knocked the phone into his bag when he reached for it. He frantically dug through books, folders, and everything else in there hindering his search; when he finally pulled out the phone, it was too late. Now at his side, Higgins snatched the phone out of his hand, accepted the call, set the phone to speaker mode, and said loudly, "Hello?"

_'I hate you,'_ Isa thought. _'I don't deserve this.'_

_"...Isa?"_ Roxas's voice crackled uncertainly.

"This is Professor Ronald Higgins at Radiant Garden University," Higgins boomed. "You are currently interrupting my class."

_"I have to talk to Isa."_

"By all means, be my guest," Higgins said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at Isa but continuing to hold the phone out of reach.

Isa sighed. "What is it, Roxas."

_"I...I don't know if it's an emergency or not, but-"_

"It doesn't matter now. Why are you calling?"

_"I...I just...Xion threw up again, and she doesn't look good but I don't know what to do..."_

Three precious, hard-earned course credits in jeopardy, and all for this nonsense. "Roxas-"

_"My heart really hurts."_

...Now, that was cause for concern. Roxas and Xion were still connected enough that each of them could feel the other's strong emotion. "You haven't been neglecting her, have you?"

_"No! I put her in here with me and fed her and I cleaned up the last time she threw up and I've been giving her medicine and trying to keep her warm, or cold, or whatever she wants, but-"_

"Which medicine?"

_"The one on the table."_

"_Which_ table, Roxas?" Isa said in exasperation, too distracted to register that Higgins had put the phone back into his hand. "There was a pain reliever / fever reducer in her room, and Lea must have dumped half the medicine cabinet out in the kitchen-"

_"The one in her room."_

"All right, when was the last time you gave her a dose?"

_"Right before I called. But she looks worse, not better."_

Isa got a bad feeling. "What about the previous dose?"

_"I dunno."_

"What do you mean you don't know?" Isa stormed, rising to his feet. "Didn't I tell you to check the time?"

_"Uh..."_

"Number XIII, tell me _exactly_ how much medicine you've given that girl since the time we left."

_"...Are you mad at me?"_

"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION."

_"Fine, geez! I dunno, five times, maybe?"_

"_What_?!"

_"Or...four or...three...yeah, three. ...Or four."_

On top of his folder which contained the course syllabus, and the words, _"A third instance will be considered confirmation that the student wishes to drop the class,"_ Isa pressed his hand so that it would stop trembling. He looked up to meet his professor's eyes and said to Roxas, clearly and quietly, "I'm coming home."

Higgins, who had been watching him inscrutably, showed no change of expression.

_"What? But I thought you said you couldn't- Uh, I think Xion wants to talk to you."_

"Xion?"

Her voice finally came through, hoarse and weak. _"I want to..."_

"Xion," Isa murmured, unaware of how much his voice had softened.

_"Are you...at school...Saa-chan...?"_

Isa closed his eyes in mortification at the intimate nickname being broadcast for the entire class to hear. Although successful in not collapsing into a puddle of shame, he dropped his head so that his hair swung forward around his face. "Yes, but I'm leaving."

_"Class is...over...?"_

"No, but it doesn't matter."

_"You can't...miss class..."_

"Forget what I said this morning. Your health is more important."

_"No...I'm okay...just come home as soon as school's over...okay?"_

"...All right," Isa pretended to agree, laying the phone down so he could start packing his things.

_"Saa-chan...?"_

"What."

_"When you come...will you...watch ponies with me...just once...?"_

Isa did collapse this time, sinking down into his chair because he was too horrified for his legs to hold him. "Xion," he said in a completely dead voice, "I will do whatever you ask, because apparently I was born to submit to your feminine humiliations."

_"Oh..."_

"I'll see you soon."

_"Okay...love you, Saa-chan..."_

Well, at least he was never going to set foot in this class again. "I appreciate your sentiment."

_"When does your last class end?"_ Roxas asked.

"4:50."

_"Okay..."_

"She had better still be alive by the time I get there."

_"O-Okay."_

Isa hung up, swung his bag over his shoulder, thanked Higgins brusquely for the opportunity to learn from him this semester, and started to march out the door.

"Tsukino."

Isa halted on the threshold and looked back resentfully. _'Haven't you done enough?'_

For some reason, most of the female students were staring at Isa with lit up faces, but he didn't spare much attention for them. Higgins was back at the board, about to resume the lecture, watching Isa. "I will see you in class on Thursday. I assume you weren't too busy texting to notice when I announced the assignment change."

"I - heard that, but-" _'Why does it matter? Haven't I been expelled from this class?'_

"Very well. Have a good afternoon, Mr. Tsukino." Professor Higgins began scrawling more notes on the board. "Now, it's true that the discovery throws a wrench into the widely accepted Simulacrum Theory, but some leading authorities have argued that..."

Somewhat at a loss upon being offered such unexpected mercy, Isa bowed deeply without interrupting the lecture and then left. _'I can't...believe it... I still have a chance of finishing that course after all...'_ He smiled. Briefly. Then remembered that all fifty or so of his classmates, plus the professor, had heard Xion's end of that horrific phone conversation. "Sacred moon, do I _want_ to?" Of course not, but he didn't exactly have a choice about the matter. "Why is it that you people seem to make a hobby out of destroying my life...?"

He rushed home as fast as he could. As soon as he opened the front door of the house, he saw Roxas kneeling on the living room floor, holding Xion close with one arm and clutching at his own heart with his other hand. Xion was curled into him, shivering and whimpering.

"Isa!" Roxas burst out in great relief. "I thought you weren't supposed to come until-"

"Is her condition better, worse, or the same as it was when you called me?" Isa demanded, dropping his bag and crouching to feel Xion's forehead.

"Worse..."

[. . .]

"You'll have to wait until we get you to the hospital," he said, rising back to his feet.

"N-No...I have to..."

Ignoring her, Isa dug his phone and wallet out of his bag so he could shove them into his pockets. "Do you have your phone and wallet on you?" he asked Roxas.

"M-My phone's here, but my wallet's in my school bag, I think-"

Isa had retrieved it, and had just found Xion's as well, when he heard Roxas calling him urgently.

[. . .]

Isa ordered, leaping to his feet and practically flinging himself across to his closet. _'Coat, coat, where's my wretched coat, is this mine or Lea's...?'_

"What are you doing?" Roxas said in alarm when Isa stepped back toward the bathroom, zipping down his old Organization coat as far as he could without crippling himself.

"I'm taking her to the hospital _now_. We don't have time to go the long way."

"You're gonna take her through a dark corridor?!"

"Move." Isa started wrestling Xion into her own protective coat.

"Isa! You can't go through the corridors!"

"Get off me."

"_I'll_ take her!"

"No." Isa stood up with Xion in his arms.

"Isa _stop_ it! If you use the corridors, Xehanort might come back."

"If that happens, you have permission to kill me," Isa snapped, turning away.

"_Isa_!" Roxas shouted.

Isa gestured, and a dark portal opened before him. Xion stirred. "Saa-chan, no..."

Roxas rushed into Isa's path and pushed him back. "_No_. I'LL take her, _give_ her to me!"

"_Move_, Roxas!"

"Please!" Roxas cried, finally breaking into the tears he'd been struggling against all this time. "I _know_ I messed up and you can't trust me anymore, but it doesn't matter, does it? You don't even care about us, you don't care if Xion dies, so please please please let me take her and just call Axel or something, I really can do this..."

Isa stared in shock, no longer resisting as Roxas struggled to pull Xion out of his arms. "Roxas, I..."

"I won't mess up again," Roxas said, sniffing hard to try to quell the tears. "I promise."

"Roxas, it wasn't- _Wait_! Get your coat, you fool!"

Once they were gone, Isa ran, racing to the hospital as fast as he could and trying to text Lea at the same time. _"STAY at work, you cant help. just come to hospital afterward. STAY."_ No reply, which meant that Lea had probably completely ignored him and was now running to the hospital, too. "You'll be just as useless there as I am, Lea..."

o.o.o.o.o

Xion would recover from the poisoning. Once the nurse left them alone, Roxas crawled onto the bed and curled up next to his twin, face hidden against her shoulder, as she held his hand. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"It's okay," she whispered back.

Lea hugged them both and said, a little awkwardly but sincerely, "I love you guys. Don't scare me like that, okay?"

"Okay. And don't scare us, either."

"Heh, I won't." Then, wondering where Isa had disappeared to, Lea went to look for him, and found him in a waiting room. Isa was sitting in a chair in a corner - _not studying_. He had gone back home to get some schoolwork, but it simply lay on the seat next to him as he stared off into space. "Hey...Isa?"

Wordlessly, Isa picked up a textbook, opened it, and stared at the page as if he was reading it.

"Isa, cut it out. Come hang out with us."

"...Roxas thinks I don't care about them."

"Do you?" Lea said cautiously, and regretted it when Isa gave him an injured look. He sat down next to his friend. "What's going on?"

"I..._did_ resent them at one point...I still do sometimes...they can be quite irritating..."

Lea rolled his eyes and prompted, "But?"

"...But they're my family now, and I-" Isa looked around and lowered his voice before continuing, "and I _do_ care about them. They're not threats anymore, they're not nuisances...at least, not all the time...I see things in them now to admire and appreciate." A pause. "I thought they knew that. I thought it would be _obvious_ that I would be upset if they got hurt."

"Well...sometimes, Isa...you have to, you know - talk to people. Not everyone's smart like me and can read your mind. Sometimes you have to go to those people you used to hate and tell them you don't hate them anymore, or they'll think you still hate them."

After a while, Isa finally got up and went back to the hospital room. Roxas and Xion were watching TV together. Isa flinched away from the ponies and came to stand by Xion's bed. She looked up at him. Roxas gripped her hand tighter and kept his eyes on the TV.

Isa couldn't meet her gaze while he did it, but he leaned down and kissed Xion's forehead. "I'm glad you'll be all right."

"Did you come home early from school?" she asked. "I don't remember very well..."

"Er...yes, I did."

She smiled at him. "You weren't supposed to."

He rested a hand on the side of her head to draw her close. "I know I've never specifically told you, but...I care about you, Xion. I was worried about you."

"..."

"Don't _cry_!"

"Okay," she sobbed. He sighed and held her until she calmed down, ignoring Lea smiling at them from across the room. Roxas was watching them, too, but quickly pretended he was engrossed in the pony cartoon again when Isa looked at him. Isa went around and laid a hand on the young man's shoulder, noting that he flinched. "Roxas..."

"What," Roxas said defensively.

"I'm proud of you, you know. You did well bringing her here - you were right when you said you could handle the task."

"..."

"And - you did well earlier, also."

Roxas stiffened in surprise.

"You did your best, and all will be well. Thank you, Roxas. We were right to trust you." He thought that this warranted _some_ sort of response, and was displeased until Xion reached to stroke her brother's hair and Isa finally realized that Roxas wasn't answering because he didn't want to reveal that he was crying. _'Oh...'_

Well, this was awkward. A little embarrassed at all the things he'd forced himself to say, Isa backed up and then turned to leave again, needing to be alone.

"Isa," Lea said softly as he passed, "thank you."

Isa mumbled something, he was not even sure what, and went to search for a good place to read.

The morning after Xion came home, it was quieter than usual, since she was resting in bed as Lea and Isa went about their morning routines, and Roxas was apparently sleeping in, since he wouldn't have to go to school again.

He did, however, have to be up before the men left, so as their departure time drew closer and closer, they paused more and more often to yell up at the loft.

"Roxas, wake _up_, we're leaving soon."

"Rox! Come on, buddy, up and at 'em."

"Roxas, I'm about to come up there and drag you down by force."

"Seriously, Roxas, let's go."

Lea finally climbed up to physically haul the sleeping teenager out of bed. "Isa!"

Hearing the tone of his friend's voice, Isa immediately veered over until he stood at the foot of the ladder. "What?"

"Help me get him down, I think he's sick."

"Not again..."

Xion, wrapped up in a quilt, came shuffling into the living room. She watched Lea and Isa carrying Roxas's limp body over to the sofa. "What's wrong with him?" she croaked.

"Must've caught whatever you have, Xi."

"Oh no!"

"He'll be fine..."

Xion shuffle-ran to her brother and knelt beside him, anxiously smoothing his hair out of his pale face. "Roxas...are you awake...?"

Lea and Isa were silent as they worked together, taking Roxas's temperature, finding something he could eat for breakfast that wouldn't upset his stomach, making sure he had blankets and water...

Glancing at the clock, Isa finally murmured, "Lea...I _can't_ miss school. I truly can't. I'm already going to be late to my first class."

Lea looked at him helplessly.

"It will be all right - Roxas insists on paying the hospital bills, and you said we can make the rent if we buy nothing else until then. If we ration the food here carefully, and have the children eat at your mother's house..."

Lea smiled a little and shook his head. "Sometimes, I just need to know when to quit." He pulled out his phone. "Hey, Mom... Yeah. Yeah, everything's going great- No! No, wait, it's not, that's actually why I'm calling."

He expelled a breath. "Look, I..." His voice faded to a mumble as he spoke. "I know I said I'm a grown-up and I can take care of myself now, and that I can handle everything and I don't need you and I'm perfectly capable of running my own place and taking care of my own family and I don't need my mom to keep baby-sitting me and I'm not gonna be one of those people who make their parents raise their kids, but..."

Isa forced himself to be patient and not point meaningfully at the clock.

Lea sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Usually I _can_ handle it, it's just...hard sometimes. And I've been working my butt off and I _can_ make rent this month, it's just, both the kids are sick and I can't stay home to watch them because, well, then I _won't_ make rent, and Isa is, you know, busy, too, and I just...it's only for maybe a day or two, just until the kids get better, and I- ...Mom, I need help."

Both their mothers came together. Mrs. Hayes went straight to hug Lea ("You should have called us _sooner_!"), who was past the sentimental mood now and reacted by simply whining. Mrs. Tsukino kissed her son's cheek in a distracted way and then went to fuss over the teenagers, cuddling Xion and cooing at Roxas.

"It's good to see you, too, Mother," Isa said dryly. "I'm leaving now."

"I gotta go, too, Mom," Lea said, breaking away. "Look, I - I really appreciate this. I'll never ask again, I swear."

"Lea, you are always my son, and you can _always_ ask for help." She kissed him one last time. "Go on, love, we'll take care of things here."

"All right." Lea took one last look back, smiled, and left for work feeling lighter.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I spontaneously decided to write a "sick fic" when I myself was sick. ^^; It got a lot longer than I expected, I kept getting ideas... LOL, poor Saïx is so fun to torment. XD I adore SaiShi...

**I did look up this kind of poisoning; I definitely took artistic license, but still, you CAN die from overdosing on over-the-counter pain relievers. Please read the warning labels, follow the directions, and be careful when you're using any kind of medication.**

Okay, so - I know I told some of you that I wasn't going to censor this story, and my reason for censoring anyway was actually not because of the sensitivity of the content. (And for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there was a really awkward scene in this story that I was ANGSTING big-time about how to handle, whether or not to censor, how to post, etc.) I was very, very close to tacking the full version onto the end of _First Blood_, but at the last minute, I decided to just cut out the scene and group this story with the rest of the BbF&ML fics. The deciding factor was, yet again, me trying to write about things that I really have no clue about. *sweatdrop* Artistic license is one thing, but there was one element that could have been a really ludicrous mistake, and I didn't want to risk breaking the limits of plausibility, so...I ended up doing the easiest thing after all. *sweatdrop*

Basically, the scene that got cut out was where Isa & Roxas had to change Xion's clothes (because it never occurred to Roxas that people who've been drinking water and juice and soup all day will have to use the restroom at some point, and will need help doing so when they're sick...), and in the process, Isa discovered an alarming symptom that made him want to get Xion to the hospital ASAP. (They had a towel covering her, btw; neither of the guys actually saw anything.) Isa managed to get through the ordeal in a businesslike way, even though he was mentally going, "Whyyyyyyy meeeeee? DX DX Dang it Lea this is all your fault AGAIN" the whole time. Roxas, in addition to having zero sexual attraction to his sister, was also pretty worried about her, and feeling guilty about how he messed up and made her even more sick than before. Xion herself wasn't entirely lucid and was too sick to care. The VERY LAST thing I wanted was for people to jump to wrong assumptions, or to accuse Isa and Roxas of things that would have never crossed their minds. It's certainly an awkward situation, but situations like that _happen_ in life when you're a caretaker, you know? :/


	12. BbF&ML: That Kind of Love

_**BbF&ML: **__**That Kind of Love**_** (rough draft)**

**A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

Summary: This is supposed to be Lea's job, but Isa's usually the one who's more available.

A/N: Sorry ahead of time; these were _intended_ to be cute SaiShi and SaiRoku drabbles where Isa's forced to be parental, but it ended up as more like fictionalized rants or character/pairing introspection. Sorry. :/ I hope they're not too boring or uncomfortable to read.

Also, I know that one of Xion's friends at school is Sally, but I forgot who the other one is supposed to be, so I just made up a random name for now. *sweatdrop* The Xion story takes place first; the Roxas one takes place after they've been living in Radiant Garden for about a year and a half.

**Part 1 - Isa & Xion**

Isa was studying in the library when someone came up and set their things on the table beside him. He had no idea what to make of this until the person crawled into the chair next to him and he realized it was Xion. "What are you doing here?"

"I looked all over the library until I found you," she said in a low voice.

He turned toward her, frowning in concern. She looked rather small and subdued. "Where's Roxas?"

"They went to Skater's Park..."

"Why aren't you with them?"

"Um...they don't like when I go with Roxas everywhere all the time."

Isa's frown deepened. "Don't you have female friends you can spend time with?"

"Yeah, but...I just wanted to come home."

He looked at her, expecting more of an answer.

"I..." She finally reached out and set a piece of paper in front of Isa. It was wrinkled where she'd clutched it.

"What's this?" A note form a teacher probably would have been typed. This had been handwritten.

"What should I do?"

He picked it up and read it. Confusion, surprise, dismay, exasperation, annoyance. "...Well. It seems you have an admirer."

"Is that bad or good?" she asked anxiously.

"It depends on how you feel about it. Do you like this boy?"

"Yes."

Isa studied her a moment. "Do you think you would enjoy kissing him?" he clarified. Then, realizing that further clarification might be necessary, "On the lips?"

"What?" she gasped.

"If not now, then some time in the future when you're more accustomed to the idea?"

She stared at him. He waited.

She thought about it. "Um...not really."

"Then you will have to turn him down."

"What's that mean?"

"Do not meet him as he requests, obviously; and if the subject ever comes up again, make it clear that you have no romantic interest in him."

"So...like..."

He sighed. "You had better talk to Lea about this..."

"But he's busy."

"_I'm_ busy, too, Xion. Lea would know far more about this sort of thing than I would, anyway."

"Huh? Why?"

He hated moments like this. _Lea_ was their adopted father, not him; it wasn't fair that he ended up in parental situations so often. _'...He _is_ funding much of my college education. I suppose I have to pay him back in one way or another.'_

He sighed. "Xion. Human beings are living organisms, and therefore have a very deep-rooted drive to procreate. This drive manifests in many ways, one of which being the attraction between males and females that is often termed 'love.' Being higher order beings, the process is usually much more complicated for us than for lower organisms, which means that humans have a good chance of failing to-"

The longer he spoke, the more confused she looked. He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Traditionally, two people are attracted to each other, fall in love, get married, and have children. You are at an age where most people are being attracted to each other. Because we're human, it's complicated, and sometimes you're attracted to a person who does not return your affections in the same way."

"...Oh," she said cautiously.

"Because the attraction in this case is not mutual, your letter-writer will have to give up on you and look elsewhere for a more suitable...mate." _'I don't think that was the appropriate term. I am not the person who should be explaining this to her.'_

"Is that bad?"

"Xion, just tell him you're not interested."

"Not interested in what?"

"_Xion_."

"Well, I don't know! I don't know _anything_! Sally and Hilde are always, always, always having to explain stuff to me, and people make fun of me and Roxas for being dumb-" She broke off, staring at him in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"...I'm trying to remind myself that injuring schoolchildren will land me in jail, and would not be the best way to help you."

"Help me...?" She scooted closer. "Saa-chan, it's okay. Sally and Hilde tell me to ignore them, so I do."

"Hmph."

"Saa-chan?"

"What?"

"Am I ever going to be as smart as everyone else someday?"

He laid his hand over her own. "Xion, people are always learning. _Always_. It doesn't matter how much you discover about the world, there will _always_ be more. Our universe, in that regard, is infinite."

She smiled.

"Each person also has his or her unique areas of expertise." He shook his head slightly. "Keep in mind that the people you know at school would have a difficult time living in the Organization, and would be completely at a loss if they had been assigned the tasks you were given, or expected to slay the Heartless you destroyed on a daily basis."

"I guess that's true."

Isa added in a mutter, "And my area of expertise is certainly not this whole love and dating nonsense, Lea should be the one helping you with this..."

Xion studied him. "Saa-chan?"

"Hm?"

"You said people fall in love and get married, but you said it like not everyone does."

"Like I said, human beings are complicated."

"Did you ever fall in love?"

"No."

"...What about Princess Jasmine?"

He sighed. "Though I am somewhat fond of her and consider her to be a friend, I was never 'in love' with her. I am glad she is happy with her husband."

"So you're gonna find someone else to fall in love with?"

"No. I'm not. As long as I enjoy my life, I don't see why a lover should be a necessary component of that."

"_Are_ you happy?"

He opened his mouth, closed it again without speaking, and thought about this. He finally said, "I dislike school very much..."

"That's another thing I don't get. You do school _all the time_, that's your _life_, you're ALWAYS going to class or studying. But it looks like you hate it."

"Well," he grumbled, "I do."

"Then I don't get it."

"It's...a means to an end, I suppose. I want to finish what I started. I want my life to be what it was _supposed_ to be like, before it was...interrupted. When I graduate, I want to look back on the accomplishment and be proud to have reclaimed one of the things that was stolen from me."

She squeezed his hand. "And then you'll be happy?"

He regarded her, this young woman before him with clear blue eyes and a strong heart. He thought of his dearest friend, how they were both alive and together and home again, with no more lies or darkness between them, and the rest of their lives stretching out before them. He remembered all the time that had passed since the end of the war, the way this family he hadn't wanted at first had become comfortable to him, the place where he belonged. Lea's laughter, Roxas's and Xion's smiles. The love between all four of them.

School was his job. Lea and Roxas and Xion were his life. "Xion," he said, "I'm already happy."

"I'm glad," she said. "I didn't used to care, but after a while, I started wanting you to be happy, so I'm glad you are."

"I'm glad you are, too." He paused. "Are you?"

"Me? Yeah, I guess so."

He frowned. "What does 'I guess so' supposed to mean?"

"I just... School is hard...and me and Roxas are so different from everyone else..."

"I'm sorry," he murmured, not sure what else to say.

She squeezed his hand again. "It's not your fault. All I ever wanted was to be free, and to know who I am, and to live with Roxas and Axel forever." She smiled. "So...I have that now. It's not perfect, but I don't think anything is."

"That's right."

"Yeah. So I have my dream now, like Rapunzel did, and now I'm just...not sure what my new dream is."

"Well," Isa finally said, looking back at the love letter, "I assume it's not this boy of yours."

Xion laughed a little. "No... Saa-chan, what do I do? Am I supposed to just...walk up to him tomorrow and say I don't feel the same as him? He'll be so sad..."

"He'll get over it."

"You think so?"

"Yes."

"...But until he gets over it, he'll be so sad..."

Isa sighed. "Write a letter, then."

"Huh? Like this?'

"_No_, not a letter like this. Just an ordinary letter, to tell him that you're sorry, but you don't return his feelings."

"Okay... Um, can you help me with it, Saa-chan?"

o.o.o.o.o

When Lea got home from work, Roxas had fallen asleep on the couch, and Isa and Xion were chatting as they made tea. Lea looked at them for a minute, smiling at the sight of two of his Important People getting along (_'It never gets old...'_), then gave a relieved sigh and sank down into one of the kitchen chairs. "Hey...can one of you be awesome and get me something with lots of sugar?"

"Uh...do you want a Pop-Tart?" Xion suggested, at the same time Isa said disapprovingly, "Sugar is just going to make you even more tired later."

"I'm tired, don't argue..." As Xion went to rummage around for the Pop-Tart box, Lea frowned at the kitchen table and started to read the unfinished letter lying there. "_'...I know it must have taken a lot of courage, but I'm afraid I can't return...'_"

Isa whirled, eyes widening when he realized what Lea was doing. "Don't read that!"

"Some high schooler wrote you a love letter?!" Lea exclaimed in astonishment.

"_Give_ me that, and mind your own business," Isa growled, jerking it out of his hands.

"How'd you get a high school kid to fall in love with you?!"

"It's not _me_, it's _Xion_. Some wretched boy thinks he's in love with her."

"But the rejection letter's in your handwriting."

"I'm _helping_ her, she'll re-copy it later."

"Riiiiight."

"Look, here's the original letter. It's to _Xion_."

Xion took her own Pop-Tart to the living room and sat on the couch, draping her legs over Roxas's inert body.

"Are they fighting again?" Roxas asked sleepily.

"Yeah. But I'd rather they fight over dumb stuff than over munny."

"Yeah."

"Here." Xion broke off a piece of Pop-Tart and offered it to her twin.

"Thanks." He shifted so he could eat it.

"...Roxas, I got a love letter today."

"What's that?"

"Someone fell in love with me."

"Oh."

"Isa's helping me write a letter back, so I can tell him I only want to be friends."

"Oh."

"...If I _did_ love him back, though, would you be mad?"

"I dunno." He looked uncomfortable, and laid a hand on her knee as if to hold her close. "If you fall in love with someone, don't get all stupid and forget me..."

"Oh, no." She leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Ow."

"Sorry. I'll always love you, Roxas." She kissed his cheek.

He put his arms around her waist. "Good." He looked at the TV, not wanting to work on homework yet. "What do you want to watch?"

"_Suite Life_ is on now, right?"

"I think so."

Lea, who'd finished his argument, came over to watch, too, leaving Isa to finish drafting the rejection letter fairly quickly. He came over to drop it on Xion's lap and said, "From now on, _Lea_ is the one you go to about your love life. Understand?"

"Yes. Thank you, Saa-chan."

"Hmph."

**Part 2 - Isa & Roxas**

There was a disagreement about food again, so now Roxas was spreading pepperoni slices across the top of an uncooked pizza, as Isa seasoned the vegetables he was sautéing.

"Did you finish your homework?"

"_Yes_, sacred moon, all you think about is homework."

"I simply do not want to see a repeat of last semester-"

"I won't slack off, okay? I wanna try to make Honor Roll this semester."

"...Oh. Well, good."

"Yeah."

They continued cooking in companionable silence. It made it easy to hear Xion and Lea bickering good-naturedly over the use of the bathroom.

"People are noisy when they get ready for dates."

"Yes."

A few minutes later, Xion came dashing into the kitchen. "Move, Roxas, I need the sink!" she cried, grabbing a dish towel out of a drawer.

"Whoa-"

"Xion, I've _told_ you not to run around in your underthings," Isa said in exasperation.

"Axel knocked over my makeup and now my slip's stained!" she protested, hiking up her skirt so she could scrub at the powder smeared on her slip. She wasn't wearing anything but a bra on top. "Jerk's hogging the mirror and blocking the sink; Saa-chan, tell him to move! I'm a girl, I need it more."

"Xion, what you _don't_ need is to be worrying about your slip-" He caught her arm to make her look at him. "-because _no one is going to be seeing it_. Do you understand me?" he growled. "If this boy even _attempts_ to touch you inappropriately, I _will_ be paying him a visit, and I will bring Lunatic with me."

"Isaaa," she whined, trying to wriggle free, "we'll be good. I don't even want to have sex until I'm married, anyway." She suddenly hugged him, to his surprise. "But I like that you're worried about me, Saa-chan. You feel way more like my daddy than Axel does."

"Get off. Put on a shirt, and stop fussing with the slip that no one is going to see, since it will remain under your skirt and properly clothing you at all times."

"See?" Xion kissed his nose and waltzed back to the bathroom. "Axel, _move_!"

"I'm almost done!"

As Isa and Roxas were eating, Xion came twirling back in, now fully dressed and ready to go. "How do I look?" she asked coquettishly, posing.

Roxas shrugged. "Fine."

"You look very beautiful, Xion," Isa said dutifully. She giggled in relief and went to hug him.

"Show time!" Lea crowed, hurrying out to join them. "Wish me luck!"

"Good luck," Roxas said, at the same time Isa frowned and asked, "Luck with what?"

"Well, not getting dumped would be a good start..."

Isa sighed. "When are you ever going to take my advice and stop trying so hard when it's obviously not working?"

"I haven't hit rock-bottom yet."

The doorbell rang. "It's Kenji!" Xion squealed. Then, "Axel, Isa, _no_!" when they both started heading for the door.

"We still don't like him yet," Roxas explained, going to join them.

"Uuuugh...you guys had better not ruin my first Valentine's date!"

Kenji stepped back in alarm when he saw the three grim faces greeting him. "Whoa-! Ugh, seriously?'

"Hi, Kenji," Roxas said. "If Xion's not happy when she comes home, I'm gonna beat you up."

"I already got the Shotgun Lecture from you freaks twice," Kenji grumbled.

"Oi," Lea said, "just because it's Valentine's Day doesn't mean the rules've changed, smartmouth. No tongue-"

"There is school tomorrow," Isa put in, "so you will have her home no later than 10:30."

"Seriously?"

"Not ten-thirty-one, TEN-THIRTY."

"All right, _fine_!"

Roxas felt like most of the rules could be summed up pretty easily. "Don't be a jerk."

"Hands above the waist," Lea ordered, "and-"

"Okay, we got it, thanks," Xion said, pushing through them and shooting them an I'll-kill-you smile before dragging away her boyfriend. "I love you guys!" she called back once they were safely out of range.

"Love you, too!" Lea yelled after her.

"Have fun," said Roxas.

"Stay out of trouble," Isa added, a little hopelessly.

When she was out of sight, Lea sighed, made sure he had everything, and hovered awkwardly in the doorway. "Well...I guess I should be off, too."

"Okay."

"I think you're already running late."

Still, Lea hesitated. "Hey - you guys'll be okay alone?"

"Of course."

"Why wouldn't we be?' Roxas said in confusion.

"I dunno, I just- Valentine's and all..."

They looked at him like they weren't sure why this should be significant.

Lea chuckled and shook his head. "Well, bye, then. Call me if you need anything, all right?"

"We are perfectly capable of surviving without you for one evening, Lea."

Lea smiled a little. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Have fun," Roxas said.

"Will do."

After he was gone, Isa and Roxas went back to finish eating dinner.

"...So, no plans for tonight?" Isa finally asked.

"No," Roxas pouted. "All my friends are lame and have dates."

"You don't?" Isa said in mild surprise. "I thought you were fairly popular."

"Well, yeah, but...I dunno." Roxas shrugged.

"I see you weren't wanting for affection, at least," Isa remarked, glancing at the corner of the living room where both Roxas and Xion had dumped their 'Valentine's loot' from school.

"Huh?"

"You received many Valentines."

"Yeah. And four girls asked me out. And a guy."

"You turned them all down?"

"Yeah."

"...Why?" Isa asked curiously.

Roxas shrugged. "I dunno. They weren't The One."

"'The One'?" Isa repeated dryly.

"You know...like in the movies...your true love, the one you want to be with forever? Like how Rose has Phillip, and Jasmine has Aladdin, and Belle has that guy, and-"

"Yes, I understand."

"None of them were my true love. So I said no."

"...You're looking for your true love?" Isa said skeptically.

"I mean, I'm not _looking_. I'm just going to school and stuff. But when I get my true love, I'll be happy, and until then, I'll just...do stuff. Like I'm doing now."

"Unhappily?" Isa teased in a monotone.

"Isaaaa. Come on, you get it, don't you? Aren't you waiting for your true love, like you're always telling Axel to do?"

"Hm... First of all, I'm not, since I already have all the love I need and am as happy as school will allow me to be. Second of all, yes, I _am_ always telling Lea something like that, and it's interesting how you, at least, are taking my advice, even if the one it was meant for is ignoring it."

"...You already have all the love you need?"

"Yes."

"Even though Axel doesn't love you back?"

"_What_?"

"A lot of people at school say you and Axel are gay. Gay means you like guys instead of girls, right?"

"Yes, it does, at least in the context you're implying; and no, I'm not, and I am rather tired of hearing people jump to those conclusions."

"They say because we all live together and you guys aren't married to anyone else..."

"Our life circumstances are quite unusual and have nothing to do with our love lives. I'm not married because I have no romantic interest in women- _Or_ men. Lea is not married because he has had very little opportunity to cultivate a worthwhile romantic relationship, and I suspect his desperate efforts to find a 'true love,' as you put it, are actually counterproductive, which is why I keep telling him to slow down."

"Why _does_ he date so much, anyway, if he's not trying to hide how he feels about you?"

"...That's the explanation they give?"

"Some people. They wouldn't believe me when I tried to explain, and finally I thought that maybe they're right."

Isa sighed. "Let them believe what they want to believe, it has nothing to do with us. Though just for your own information, Lea and I care about each other very much, but have never been attracted to each other in the way your overeager gossips like to assume."

"Like with me and Xion... That's what I thought, but then I wasn't sure."

"And to answer your question, I suspect that Lea is trying to do the same thing I am - reclaim some aspect of the adolescence that was stolen from us."

"Ohhhh."

"I don't know for _sure_, but that is what makes the most sense to me."

"Okay."

"Roxas, your instincts are usually right. Although it's good to consider carefully what other people say, listen to yourself first."

"Okay."

How had they ended up talking about all this, anyway? "...Are you finished eating?"

"Yeah."

"Help me clean up."

"Sure."

After dinner, Isa retreated to his room to study, as Roxas tried to watch TV and then play video games. But the house was too quiet, and dark, and he was kind of bored and lonely, so he took the PSP to the bedroom and climbed up to Lea's bed so he could lounge there and play in someone else's presence.

Isa sighed. "Roxas, go away."

"You can't even hear anything, I've got ear buds!"

"I can hear the buttons clicking, and it's very distracting."

"Fine. I'll get off the bed."

"Thank you."

Roxas climbed down and sat on Isa's desk, right on top of all the books and paperwork spread there. "Is _this_ distracting?"

"...You can be worse than Lea when you put your mind to it."

_"I'm distracting, and worse than Axel,"_ Roxas sang loudly, to the tune of his own theme song. "Ow!"

Isa had stood up and ruffled his hair roughly enough to hurt. "What do you want to play?"

"Really?!" Delighted, Roxas leaped to his feet, too, and scampered back to the living room. "I don't even care, pick whatever you want. Here-" He started pulling video games out of the TV cabinet. "Crash Team Racing, Mario Party, Halo..." He paused when he saw Isa wistfully cradling a game case in his hands. "Night Howler IV?"

"I never did get to play this one," Isa murmured.

Roxas grinned and popped the disc into the console. "Let's see if you forgot all your mad skills from studying too much."

"You wish."

As Valentine's Days went, it was a fairly enjoyable one for all four members of their little family.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Ftr, Xion is still uncomfortable with anything past kissing, and thinks kissing is supposed to be like in Disney where you touch lips and just kind of hold there. ^^; Also ftr, Kenji is not her 'true love,' he's just a boyfriend she dates for a while.

The video game titles were _so_ random. (Though the "Night Howler" series is just something I came up with.)

Although I had a skeletal outline, most of the conversation flow was just spontaneous drafting. I wrote these right around the time I went on hiatus, when yaoi fans were driving me crazy and one of them finally said something that was the last straw.  
I get frustrated with the yaoi side of the fandom a lot. Obviously people can interpret whatever they like if it still fits with canon, and pretty much anything goes in AUs, but it bugs me when people say stuff like, "Pffft, DUH they're gay [in canon]!" about characters whose relationships are unspecified.  
I keep seeing that happen in my real, offline life, too, in situations that have nothing to do with homosexuality. People keep _labeling_ other people and assuming they know what's going on, but they're not in their heads, and most of the time, they're wrong; then they turn against each other and sabotage themselves and it turns into this big mess that could have been so easily avoided... It's frustrating to watch.

Anyway, so these SaiShi and SaiRoku things were supposed to be stories, but as I was writing, I realized that it was basically a lot of stuff that I usually would have put in a rant or something. It just kind of spilled out in fiction form because it was really pressing on my mind while I was drafting. Again, sorry that this installment is less 'story-like' than it should be.


	13. Versus Undistorted: Miracle (prompt 12)

_**Versus **__**Undistorted**_**, a Kingdom Hearts fanwork: 100 Song Theme Challenge by Cherished Tenshi, written by Raberba girl  
Miracle (prompt 12)**

_Isa/Xion Day, 14 July 2013_

Summary: Just because he doesn't _want_ to do it doesn't mean he _can't_.

A/N: I still love Bon-Bon's challenge, but there's just no way I can write 100 Zemyx stories. *sweatdrop*

Takes place shortly after _Fire & Moonlight: Dearest_.

o.o.o

Isa slept, mostly. Partly because it was so boring being awake - there was usually nothing of interest on TV, and the only one who really visited him was Lea, who was as often as not hanging out with all his new Keyblade-wielding teenage friends.

_'So I just need to lose ten years of my life and obtain an exclusive weapon, and I'll have a friend again,'_ Isa thought resentfully.

It was while he was sulking in bed one time, facing the window, unable to sleep, that he heard someone come in. Not Lea - Lea would have burst in like an obnoxious whirlwind. Whoever it was just edged the door open and crept in with soft footsteps. Too timid to be a nurse.

Isa frowned, turning his head to look, and was dismayed to see the girl everyone called Xion. She looked so very different than the Xion he'd hated in the Organization, dressed now in fashionable clothes, with smooth glossy hair and bright blue eyes. He wasn't used to seeing her as a _person_.

She came to a halt when he looked at her. "Um...hi, Saïx."

"My name is _Isa_," he snapped.

"Isa...sorry...um, I brought you something."

They both looked at the flowers filling her arms.

"Don't tell me you brought me flowers."

"Uh...okay, I won't."

He sighed.

"I gave some to Terra and Braig, too. Terra was happy, and Braig pinched my cheeks and talked at me like I'm a baby."

"I see."

"So..." Xion came over and fussed with the flowers on his bedside table. "Um..."

"What."

"May I...may I _please_ put a flower in your hair, Isa?"

"NO."

"Aw...Terra and Braig let me..."

"_I don't care_."

Xion pouted and flopped to sit on the edge of his bed. "I bet you'd look nice with a flower."

"Wear one yourself," he snapped.

Her expression turned crafty, and unnervingly similar to Lea's. "...But now I'm all comfortable, and I can't reach...can you get a flower for me, Isa? Please?"

"Lazy girl..." He impatiently pulled a flower out of the vase and handed it over. Then he watched her struggling with it for a while before he sighed, plucked the flower back out of her hands, snapped off the excess stem, grasped her chin so as to tilt her head into a more convenient pose, and carefully tucked the blossom into her hair. "Unless you have some hairpins I can use, it won't be very secure, but it should do as long as you're careful."

"Thank you, Isa," she exclaimed, looking both surprised and pleased. She made a sudden movement as if to fling her arms around him, then hesitated - but not before Isa instinctively flinched away, which made her grin and complete the gesture after all.

He stiffened in shock, then tried unsuccessfully to pull out of her arms. "Get off. Get _off_, Xion, I am not comfortable with this."

"Aw." She released him, but only after planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Ugh..." _'I hate children.'_

"Why don't you like being hugged, Isa?"

He didn't know how to answer that. "We are not close, we don't even like each other-"

"Why _don't_ you like me, Isa?" She scooted closer and grasped his hand, displeasing him again. "I always wanted to know," she said softly. "I could never figure out what I did wrong. So I could never fix it, and I could never make you like me."

"Why do you even care about my opinion?" he grumbled.

"Don't _you_ want people to like you, Isa?"

"I don't care what other people think."

"But...don't you even care what Axel thinks?"

"His name is Lea. Not Axel."

She looked sad. He was surprised to find that it felt unpleasant, making this child feel bad. He sighed. "...Fine. I _do_ care about what Lea thinks, and since he is somewhat attached to you, it will displease him if I treat you unkindly. For his sake, I will try not to let my revulsion be visible."

She still gazed at him, looking even more sad.

"What do you want, Xion."

"...Can I _please_ put a flower in your hair?"

"Sacred moon, you're still harping about that?"

She practically crawled over him to reach the flowers, and was almost kneeling in his lap as she slipped one near his face and began twisting long blue strands around the stem. "Kairi taught me how to braid," she said proudly.

"Hn." _'You're doing a terrible job of it.'_

"Do _you_ know how to braid, Isa?"

"Why do you think I would?!"

"So I know how to do something you don't?" she said in excitement.

"I _do_ know how to braid."

"Hmmm..."

"You don't believe me?" he snapped.

"Nope," she said, shaking her head. The movement caused the blossom to come tumbling out of her hair. Isa scooped it up, pushed her head back into a convenient position, and set to work.

Xion sat still and patient until he had finished braiding the flower securely into her hair, then she pulled one of the loose strands around in front of her eyes and admired it. "All the strands are the same size," she said in awe, "it's so _pretty_... You really are good at this, Isa."

"It's nothing to brag about," he sighed, lying back against the pillows.

"Thank you for braiding my hair, Isa."

"_Don't_ thank me."

"Doesn't it look nice, Axel?"

"It's _gorgeous_, Xi!"

Isa nearly fell out of bed. "How long have you been here?!" he demanded wildly.

"We saw Xion hug you," Roxas said as they came into the room, "but then Axel pulled me behind the door and we just listened for a while."

"It's a miracle," Lea laughed, wrapping one arm around Isa and the other around Xion so he could drag them both into a hug, "Moonwolf and Xi don't hate each other anymore~!"

"Get off," Isa growled, struggling.

"Do you want a flower, too, Axel?" Xion offered. "Isa can braid it for you."

"Urgh...um, sure, Xi." He sighed. "Oh man, Xion, the things I do for you..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Sorry...I know this was a bit OOC even for manga-Xion... ^^;

Complete: 11/100


	14. BbF&ML: Emergency Contacts

_**BbF&ML: **__**Emergency Contacts**_** (rough draft)**

**A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

_Axel/Saïx/Roxas/Xion Day, 4 August 2013_

Summary: Soooo, according to the paperwork, who's the "dad" and who's the "mom"...?

A/N: The first part takes place soon after they arrive in Radiant Garden, when Lea and the kids are still living with his family. Lea's siblings are all random OCs. (Including his brother, whose name is Zeph now, not Zell or Zeke. I have to fix the "Vacation Notice" story, and I think at least one other BbF&ML story, too.) The second part is after Lea, Isa, Roxas, & Xion have moved out on their own.

o.o.o

It was such a quiet day - everyone was _gone_. After Kayla had left for her volunteer work and the other four had left for school, Lea went back to bed, then spent the afternoon helping his mother shop for groceries and cook dinner. It was kind of nice, but he got more restless as the day wore on. "I'm gonna go out and see if I can meet them halfway."

"All right- Oh, but would you please make the salad for me first?"

By the time Lea had washed, peeled, cut, and assembled everything, the kids' laughter and chatter was sounding at the door - they were already home. "Hey!" He hurried to greet them.

"Axel!" Xion skipped over to hug him, and Roxas waved.

"Hi, Lea," his sisters chorused in unison, then went back to eagerly discussing how hot one of their formerly nerdy classmates had gotten over the summer.

"Did you have a good first day of school?" Lea asked anxiously.

Roxas shrugged. "I dunno."

_'Flaming pants. That really _is_ annoying,'_ Lea thought in astonishment, on the receiving end of such a reply for the very first (and by no means the last) time.

"It was okay," Xion said uncomfortably. "Kind of confusing...and weird...but it was okay."

"What?! What?! Tell me! I'll help!"

"Ummmm...okay, but let's do something else first, I just want to relax."

"...Okay." Lea hugged her again and then looked over at Roxas, who was obliviously discussing something with Zeph. "Gaaahh."

Isa came over for dinner, surly as usual but asking Xion about school without any reminders or prompting.

"How come everyone keeps asking?" Roxas complained.

"Rox," Lea said, "it was you guys' first day of school _everrrrrr_."

"All parents like to know about their children's lives, dear," Mrs. Hayes explained, "no matter how long they've been in school. It's a very big part of your lives."

"I'm not a parent," Lea protested, "it's only on paper..."

"Did you have any homework?" Isa asked, ignoring the rabbit trail.

"Of course we don't, it's the first day of school!" Belén yelped.

"_We_ have homework," Zeph grumbled. "This is gonna be a super-fun year, I can already tell..."

"Oh," Xion said. "I have something, Axel."

"Homework?"

"They said make sure it's filled out and bring it back tomorrow."

"Show me after dinner, okay?"

"Okay."

When Roxas saw it, he said, "Oh yeah," and went to get an identical card from his own bag. He placed it in front of Lea, said, "I didn't know most of the stuff," and went to play a video game with Zeph.

"Emergency contact information," Lea read aloud. He looked at the cards for a while, then called Isa.

"What?" Isa said irritably.

"I guess, since I adopted them, I should fill these out, right?"

Isa gave him a look as if to say, _'Why did you drag me all the way over here just for that?'_

"There's two blanks, though! Who do I put for their mom? They don't have a mom. I'm not gonna put Sora or Vexen!"

"Just enter your own mother's information," Isa said impatiently.

"But-" Lea stared at the card. "They're not gonna think I'm married to Mom or anything, are they?"

"It'll be fine, dear," she chuckled, leaning over to see. "They just want to know who to call in case something happens to the kids."

"Okay..."

**One year later:**

Lea and Isa happened to meet outside the house, just as it was getting dark enough for the street lights to start coming on. "Yo."

"Hi."

"Sooo...how was whatever you did all day?"

"Fine." Pause. "How was work?"

"Fine."

"..."

"...We're so lame."

"It doesn't matter."

Inside, Roxas and Xion were snacking on yogurt and enthusiastically playing Command Board on the kitchen table.

"Nooo, jerk!"

"Heh heh, now I'm winning..."

Lea grinned and went over to greet them. "Hey, guys. How was your second first day of school?"

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Very informative. Are your teachers nice"

"I dunno."

"Oh, Axel, we got those card thingees again you have to fill out." Xion went to get them.

Lea looked at the cards for a while. "Hey...Isa...it's asking for the parents' contact info again."

"So?"

"I'm thinking it makes more sense now to put you and me."

"_No_. They're your children, not mine."

"But we live together now!"

"It doesn't matter. Just use your mother, like you did last time."

"No, I _told_ Mom that I'm grown up and on my own now, and I don't need her help anymore."

"You're not asking her for help, all you're doing is writing down her phone number."

"But I don't _want_ them running to her if something happens to the kids! Isa, come on, we're all in the same household, we know each other better than anyone else does, you _said_ we're a family - all I'm asking is for you to let me write down your phone number and stuff. _I'll_ be the one to actually deal with everything, okay?"

Isa looked at the cards for a while. "...Fine, but my information goes in the section labeled 'Father.'"

"What? No!"

"I will _not_ be anyone's 'mother' in any way, shape, or form."

"That is _so_ not fair, you're saying _I_ have to be their mom?"

"Just cross out the label and write 'guardian' instead."

Glaring, Lea did so. Then they stared at it for a while, with Roxas and Xion peering curiously over their shoulders.

"...You can still tell where it said 'Mother' and 'Father,'" Lea grumbled.

"Why don't you take turns?" Xion suggested. "One of you can be the mom on my card, and the other one can be the mom on Roxas's card."

"Urgh...well, I guess that's fair. Right, Isa?"

"No."

"Why are you so stubborn?!"

"Why is this important, anyway?" Roxas asked, genuinely confused. "You guys aren't even our parents at all."

"Yeah, Isa! It's not important, so stop being a sissy!"

"Stop taunting me like a five-year-old. _Fine_. We'll follow Xion's suggestion."

"Good," Lea said in satisfaction. He lowered the pen to write.

Isa snatched the card away and slipped the other beneath Lea's poised pen tip.

"Oi!"

"If I have to be _someone's_ mother," Isa said roughly, "it will be Xion's. I refuse to be the 'mother' of a boy."

"Lame, Isa," Lea pouted, filling out the mother's section on Roxas's card.

"I still don't see what the big deal is," Roxas grumbled.

"Now I have a daddy _and_ a mommy," Xion teased, hugging Isa.

"Get off."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: This drabble was lame...especially for a Pairing Day... (Not that I actually wrote it _for_ AkuSaiRokuShi Day, but I didn't have time to write my OT4 a real story [_again_ DX], so I just looked for an unposted draft, and this was the best I could find. *sweatdrop*)

I like to play with relationship dynamics and gender roles a lot. Plus, it's just fun to tease Sai and gratifying to torture Axel. I didn't write this to label Isa as "the girl," just so you know.

I wrote almost all of part one before realizing that the fic actually needed to take place after they'd moved. XD *headdesk* I ended up trying to draw the scene to a close, moving on, and just leaving it in, since it seemed a shame to cut out half of an already short fic...

The name of Lea's youngest sister was causing problems - it changed once or twice before I decided on "Genesis," but then I remembered last-minute that there's already a Genesis in Final Fantasy VII. orz Then I had to hunt for a new name, which took way longer than it should have because there were more factors involved than you would think, and I finally ended up with Belén. (Which looks way better with the accent mark, which I did not know was supposed to be there until I went searching for how to nickname it, because all the baby name sites I'd been looking at before just had it as plain old "Belen," which is wrong.) Apparently it's a popular girls' name in Spanish-speaking countries...? There's a particular reason I wanted a name like that, but it's a spoiler for the CatC universe. I put way too much effort into naming a throwaway OC, but whatever.

And Zeph, just... He originally _was_ the Zell from FF8, then I decided that wasn't a good idea and changed it to an OC, Zeke. Then I thought that was too similar to Zack (also from FF7), so then I went looking for Hispanic boys' names starting with Z, and somehow ended up with Zephyrus? Even though that's apparently Greek? (It looks like Hispanics don't like Z names, so my options were quite limited. XD) I don't know anymore. -.- Like I said, throwaway OCs, so hopefully it won't matter.


End file.
